Hemi Kelly is of Ngati Maniapoto and Ngati Tahu-Ngati Whaoa descent. He started learning te reo Maori as a young teenager and naturally progressed into teaching roles after study. Hemi is a full-time lecturer in te reo Maori at the Auckland University of Technology. His academic research and writing focus largely on the revitalisation of the Maori language and translation studies. Hemi is a licensed translator and graduate of Te Panekiretanga o te Reo (The Institute of Excellence in the Maori Language). In 2017, Hemi translated Witi Ihimaera's novella Sleeps Standing. Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1947, the Brazilian author Paulo Coelho was an actor and rock musician until, at thirty-nine, a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago led him to begin his life as a writer. Slow initial sales of his second book, The Alchemist, convinced his publisher to drop the novel, but Coelho's masterpiece grew with readers over time to become a huge global bestseller. Paulo Coelho's books have now sold more than 230 million copies worldwide and have been on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 427 consecutive weeks.