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Ken Catran (born on May 16, 1944) is a children's novelist and television screenwriter from New Zealand.

Catran is the author of many teen novels, including Taken at the Flood, Voyage with Jason, Doomfire on Venus, Space Wolf, Jacko Moran:Sniper, Talking to Blue and its sequel Blue Murder. He is perhaps best known for his Deepwater trilogy series and his contribution to the television drama Shortland Street. However, Catran became frustrated with a lack of recognition within the industry (in particular, he penned the famous line, "You're not in Guatemala now, Dr. Ropata," but has never received payment for the numerous times it has been used in publicity), and quit television altogether. Although he did not start writing until his thirties, he has become a prolific and varied writer within the New Zealand literary community.

Ken's television credits include soap operas (Radio Waves, Close to Home) as well as stand-out episodes in the TV drama Mortimer's Patch including two episodes that were the most watched TV programme in New Zealand in their respective weeks: a feat that is unlikely to be repeated.

He also penned Under the Mountain, an 8-episode treatment of the Maurice Gee novel, and in 1981/1982 researched and wrote what critics believe was the best ever quality drama produced in NZ: Hanlon - a biographical law drama. The opening episode treating sympathetically the Minnie Dean case received outstanding reviews and proved Ken's skill as far more than that of a journeyman writer working on formats established by others. It was a writing tour de force.

In 2007, after writing nearly 30 novels, he won the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal, a prestigious award for New Zealand children's writers. He resides in Waimate, a township in South Canterbury, New Zealand.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ken Catran", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0