Aotearoa New Zealand

Introduction

2021 ended on a sad note for the literary community in Aotearoa New Zealand, with the death of Keri Hulme on 27 December. The Kāi Tahu and Kāti Māmoe author was the first New Zealander to receive the Booker Prize, winning for her novel the bone people in 1985. Controversial, poetical, and confronting, Hulme’s novel remains one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most discussed works of fiction. Hulme also published several collections of poetry and short stories and was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Katherine Mansfield Memorial award (for a short story in 1975), the Māori Trust Fund prize in 1978, the New Zealand writing bursary in 1984, and the Chianti Ruffino Antico Fattore award in 1987. Helen Leahy, eulogising Hulme, described her as “a brilliant writer; a brave author and a creative spirit who inspired us to dream wildly; to create beyond possibilities; to think differently” (Waatea, 29 December). Huia Publishers founder Robyn Bargh acknowledged Hulme’s vital work as an inspiration and mentor to Māori writers (Waatea, 29 December), while for Hulme’s nephew, Mathew Salmons, Hulme has “always been a storyteller” with “stories to share” (Stuff, 28 December).

Children’s author Betty Gilderdale, perhaps best known for her acclaimed picture book series The Little Yellow Digger, passed away at the age of 97. In 1999, Gilderdale won the New Zealand Children’s Literature Association’s Award for Services to Children’s Literature and from 2020 this award was renamed in her honour as Storylines Betty Gilderdale Award. The 2021 winner of this award was Sarah Forster for her years of service in promoting children’s and Young Adult reading. Gilderdale was also a ground-breaking scholar, with Sea Change: 145 Years of New Zealand Junior Fiction (1982) being the first comprehensive survey of New Zealand literature for children. Aotearoa New Zealand also farewelled author, journalist, and publisher Stephen Stratford, renowned for his sensitive editing of a diverse range of literature by authors such as Ranginui Walker, Vincent O’Sullivan, and Brian Turner.

Aotearoa New Zealand authors continued to receive both international and local acclaim, with Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and Catherine Chidgey’s Remote Sympathy longlisted for the same award and shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. Cartoonist Rachel Smythe’s Lore Olympus, a successful web-comic, continued to enthral audiences with her retelling of Greek mythology, with the first 25 episodes collected and released in paperback. The web-comic won the Digital Book of the Year at the Harvey Awards, won the Eisner Award for Best Webcomic and was a finalist for Best Graphic Story or Comic at the Hugo Awards. Jacqueline Bublitz’s gripping debut novel Before You Knew My Name won the Ngaio Marsh Award for both Best First Novel and Best Crime Novel. Bublitz is the first New Zealand novelist to be shortlisted for a Gold Dagger award since Ngaio Marsh was shortlisted for Off With His Head in 1957. The Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement acknowledged the contributions of three long-serving members of New Zealand’s literary community: novelist, playwright and journalist David Hill received the fiction award, Dame Claudia Orange was celebrated for her services to non-fiction, and Anne Kennedy was recognised for her contribution to poetry.

Kennedy’s latest collection The Sea Walks into a Wall traces the sensate lines of connection between her poetic subjects and the natural world. Kennedy slips between the past and the present in a dream-like flow, and the opening poem “Flood Monologue” speaks from the point of view of a stream, with intimacy and threat.

The Ockham Book Awards took place in May with the awards ceremony at Q Theatre in Auckland. Joanna Preston’s Tumble won the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry and is a collection rich with falling and flight, featuring figures on the edge of radical transformation. The judges celebrated her innovative and evocative use of myth and history as well as her honouring of past poets: “Her pristine imagery and fine ear for rhythm and beat means every poem — and the book itself — is a celebration of poetry”. Nicole Titihuia Hawkins’ first poetry collection Whai received the Jessie Mackay Prize for Poetry. It is a collection singing with the poet’s voice and her use of te reo and Māori tikanga both within poems and as organising structures lights this collection with the presence of her whakapapa. 2021 was an exciting year for both Hawkins and her freshly-emerged independent publisher We Are Babies, founded “to publish exciting writing that might not find a home elsewhere”. The independent press has a particular commitment to work published by “queer, indigenous, POC, disabled, and otherwise marginalised writers”, and continue to publish exciting debuts from Aotearoa’s rising poetry stars (www.wearebabies.net).

The winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the Ockham Book Awards went to Whiti Hereaka for Kurangaituku, a lyrical novel which honours Māori oral tradition and gives a voice, form and name to the bird-woman from the Māori myth. The fiction category’s convenor of judges, Rob Kidd, lauded the work as “poetic, intense, clever and sexy as hell. It’s also an important novel. A game changer”. The other novels shortlisted for the award are as varied as they are powerful. Gigi Fenster’s A Good Winter immerses the reader into the unsettling psyche of Olga, who seems so light to begin with, before her psychological disturbance crescendos. Bryan Walpert’s Entanglement is intelligent and ambitious in its scope, spanning decades and continents, the nuances of time and quantum physics. Greta & Valdin, Rebecca K Reilly’s debut novel, is a hilarious look into the lives of two Māori-Russian-Catalonian siblings, who navigate heartbreak, OCD, family secrets, and Tinder, with heart and a sense of heritage. This received the Hubert Church Prize for best first book of fiction.

Tracey Slaughter’s poetic Devil’s Trumpet is a collection of 31 short stories that are charged with grit, lust and cutthroat language, keeping the reader hypnotised throughout. Bridget Van Der Zijpp’s I Laugh Me Broken is a nuanced novel about an inescapable past and the complex play between genetic inheritance and free will. Just as complex is Patrick Evans’ Bluffworld, an almost Joycean tale of academic falsehoods. Sue Orr’s Loop Tracks is a remarkable novel about the ways in which the secrets of the past influence the present. Written in real time against the progress of the Covid-19 pandemic, New Zealand’s general election and euthanasia referendum, Orr’s novel is a moving social commentary.

To reinvigorate the theatre scene after the challenges of Covid-19 and a succession of lockdowns, theatre companies produced New Zealand productions of internationally acclaimed works, such as David Hare’s translation of The Life of Galileo, Nancy Harris’ Two Ladies and Taylor Mac’s Hir. Homegrown talents were also fostered at a time of closed borders. Following her powerful piece, Sorry for Your Loss, Cian Parker’s All I See is a poignant look at life, death and enduring love. Trick of the Light Theatre continued to find success with their show The Griegol, the story of a young girl haunted by a demon shapeshifter embedded in her grandmother’s stories. Katie Wolf’s The Haka Party Incident tells the true story of University of Auckland Engineering students performing a mock haka being confronted by an activist group called He Taua in 1979, and the violence that stemmed from it. These plays, as well as new works from playwrights such as Jo Randerson and Roger Hall, kept theatres alive during this ever-stressful time for live performance.

James Courage’s 1938 play, Private History, was published with an introduction by Chris Brickell. This previously unpublished work, about sex and love between boys in an English secondary school, attracted full houses when it was first produced. It showcases Courage’s bravery in writing about love between men at a time when queer themes and queer desires frequently remained hidden.

Playmarket released the biography of Maria Dronke, a Jewish actor who escaped Nazi persecution and made her way to New Zealand. She became renowned for her dark, beautiful voice and magnetic presence, and for training the first generation of New Zealand professional actors. Author Patricia Grace released her autobiography From the Centre: A Writer’s Life. This remarkable memoir is the story of the life of a writer, of a Māori woman, and of a teacher. C. K. Stead concluded his autobiographical series with What You Made of It: A Memoir, 1987-2020, chronicling his journey as a full-time writer. The “very best book of any kind in 2021” according to Steven Braunias (The Newsroom, 15 December) was Charlotte Grimshaw’s The Mirror Book. Grimshaw, an award-winning novelist and daughter of C. K. Stead, details her childhood in this brave, explosive memoir where every moment of adversity becomes material for a story.

Family relationships are also central to Ruby Solly’s debut poetry collection Tо̄ku Pāpā, in which she revisits her childhood memories, key moments of identity formation and, especially, her bond with her father. While the overall tone is certainly one of closeness and affection, Solly’s work is nuanced, and her depiction of her pāpā honours him with honesty and frankness. Two other verse biographies published this year are Tim Grgec’s All Tito’s Children and Jenny Powell’s Meeting Rita which revisit figures from the past with an eye to examining historical sources and the cultural imaginings which accompany them and muse on the role of the poet as researcher and storyteller. These are collections as concerned with what is left out as with what is included.

Several anthologies published in 2021 celebrated the breadth of literary talent across Aotearoa New Zealand, highlighting world-recognised talent and emerging artists from underrepresented communities. Six by Six: Short Stories by New Zealand’s Best Writers reprinted stories by authors such as Katherine Mansfield, Frank Sargeson and Janet Frame, while A Game of Two Halves: The Best of Sport 2005-2019 chronicles the second half of the literary magazine’s life, featuring work by Bill Manhire, Elizabeth Knox, and Tayi Tibble. Sista, Stanap Strong! A Vanuatu Women’s Anthology presents new writing from Vanuatu by three generations of women. Mixing poetry, fiction, essay, memoir and song, each piece reflects a deep connection to Vanuatu and a willingness to share a glimpse of a complex world. A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand maps a new literature of our country as the first ever anthology of Asian New Zealand creative writing. Ranging from high school students to retirees, from recent immigrants to third-generation New Zealander’s, A Clear Dawn presents an extraordinary wave of new talent. Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa brings together and celebrates writers from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, presenting their stories through poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and theatre, with the hope of giving writers pride and joy in their identity.

A similar diversity is evident in the work of literary scholars, with a range of genres and eras receiving critical attention. Nineteenth and early twentieth century authors continued to attract, with several works published profiling the work of Katherine Mansfield, including articles exploring the connections between Mansfield and Jamaican feminist and author Una Marson or tracing the Christian moral outlook of John A Lee. Carol Markwell’s biography Enough Horizon explores the life of Blanche Baughan, profiling not only her work as a poet but also her travel writing and her work as a botanist, conservationist and prison reformer. The autobiographical foundations of Ellen Ellis’s 1882 suffrage and prohibition novel Everything Is Possible to Will are traced by Jenny Coleman, while Mark Houlahan focuses on the performance history of George Leitch’s The Land of the Moa, a play which staged the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera.

As usual, the work of Janet Frame, Margaret Mahy, Alan Duff, Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace inspired scholars. Rural and urban decolonisation in Grace’s Potiki is the focus of an article by Pia Brückner, while Jeff Murray’s climate change novel Melt is the subject of a discussion between the author and Jessica Maufort. Both of these articles appeared in a two-volume special issue of the Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies, focusing on new scholarship in New Zealand and Pacific Studies. Fiona Kidman’s Songs from the Violet Café and Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries captured the imagination, while the power of place in the nonfiction of Geoff Park and Steve Braunias was explored by Ingrid Horrocks. Contemporary New Zealand performance was also a focal point, with Torsten Jost reflecting on Rosanna Raymond’s acti.VA.tion “Soli I Tai—Soli I Uta” (“Tread on the Sea – Tread on the Land”) at Berlin’s Ethnological Museum and Amit Ohdedar and Jacob Rajan sharing their thoughts about South Asian theatre in New Zealand in an interview with Kimberly M. Jew.

On 1 January 2022, Victoria University Press rebranded itself as Te Herenga Waka University Press, reflecting their evolving vision. Te Herenga Waka translates as “the mooring place of canoes”, a notion that resonates with the press, as they see themselves as a mooring place for many authors and their work. As this change occurred in 2022, this bibliography will keep Victoria University Press to reflect the published information, but we acknowledge and respect this change of name.