Bernard Steeds was born and raised in New Zealand. His writing has appeared in the short story collection Water, in The Penguin New Zealand Anthology, The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories, The Best of New Zealand Geographic, Exposition Review, At the Bay and various other journals and anthologies. He is twice winner of the Sunday Star-Times Short Story Award, winner of the At the Bay Sparkling Prose Award 2023 and was commended in The Moth Short Story Prize 2022.