[1][3] Manawatu left home at age 18 years to accompany her husband's career as a professional rugby player and coach in Italy and Frankfurt, Germany.

[1] After six months the couple moved back to Waimangaroa, and Manawatu began working as a reporter at the Westport News, the smallest independent daily newspaper in New Zealand.

[1][3] Manawatu began writing her first novel, Auē, while living in Frankfurt, and first approached publisher Mary McCallum of Mākaro Press in April 2016.

[3] She continued it in Nelson under the working title Pluck, submitting three chapters to McCallum in November 2016 and a manuscript in January 2017; it eventually went through five rounds of editing over a year.

[1] Auē was published by Mākaro Press in August 2019 in a run of 500 copies, and was launched at Whare Tangaroa, a clifftop house at Cape Foulwind.