New Zealand literature is literature,both oral and written,produced by the people of New Zealand. It often deals with New Zealand themes,people or places,is written predominantly in New Zealand English,and features Māori culture and the use of the Māori language. Before the arrival and settlement of Europeans in New Zealand in the 19th century,Māori culture had a strong oral tradition. Early European settlers wrote about their experiences travelling and exploring New Zealand. The concept of a "New Zealand literature",as distinct from English literature,did not originate until the 20th century,when authors began exploring themes of landscape,isolation,and the emerging New Zealand national identity. Māori writers became more prominent in the latter half of the 20th century,and Māori language and culture have become an increasingly important part of New Zealand literature.
Patricia Frances Grace is a New Zealand writer of novels,short stories,and children's books. She began writing as a young adult,while working as a teacher. Her early short stories were published in magazines,leading to her becoming the first female Māori writer to publish a collection of short stories,Waiariki,in 1975. Her first novel,Mutuwhenua:The Moon Sleeps,followed in 1978.
Tungia Dorothea Gloria Baker was a New Zealand actor,weaver,and administrator. Her notable acting roles included Ngahuia in the 1980s television drama Open House and Hira in the 1993 film The Piano. Baker was influential in contemporary Māori theatre,Māori film making and Māori arts. She named the Taki Rua Theatre,and was a founding member of Māori artists' collectives Te Manu Aute and Haeata.
David Geary is a Māori writer from New Zealand who is known for his plays The Learners Stand,Lovelocks Dream Run and Pack of Girls. For television he has written for New Zealand series Shortland Street and Jackson's Wharf.
Playmarket is a not-for-profit organisation providing script advisory services,representation for playwrights in New Zealand and access to New Zealand plays. Playmarket was founded in 1973 to encourage the professional production of New Zealand plays. The organisation represents many of New Zealand's theatrical writers. Playmarket is also a script development service and a publisher of plays.
Bruce Edward George Mason was a significant playwright in New Zealand who wrote 34 plays and influenced the cultural landscape of the country through his contribution to theatre. In 1980,he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. The Bruce Mason Playwriting Award,one of the most important playwrighting accolades in New Zealand,is named in his honour. Mason was also an actor,critic,and fiction writer.
Briar Grace-Smith is a screenwriter,director,actor,and short story writer from New Zealand. She has worked as an actor and writer with the Maori theatre cooperative Te Ohu Whakaari and Maori theatre company He Ara Hou. Early plays Don't Call Me Bro and Flat Out Brown,were first performed at the Taki Rua Theatre in Wellington in 1996. Waitapu,a play written by Grace-Smith,was devised by He Ara Hou and performed by the group on the Native Earth Performing Arts tour in Canada in 1996.
Renée Gertrude Taylor,known professionally as Renée,was a New Zealand feminist writer,playwright,novelist and short story writer. She started writing plays in her 50s,with her first play,Setting the Table,written in 1981,and with her most well-known works being the trilogy of plays beginning with Wednesday to Come (1984). Renée described herself as a "lesbian feminist with socialist working-class ideals",and her plays feature strong female characters who are often working class.
Riwia Brown is a New Zealand playwright. She is the screenwriter of the popular and award-winning New Zealand movie Once Were Warriors (1994). The Once Were Warriors screenplay,adapted from the book of the same name by Alan Duff,gained Brown the Best Screenplay award at the 1994 New Zealand Film and TV Awards. Brown has written for theatre,television and films.
Fiona Farrell is a New Zealand poet,fiction and non-fiction writer and playwright.
Lynda Chanwai-Earle is a New Zealand writer and radio producer. Her written work includes plays,poems and film scripts. The play Ka Shue –Letters Home in 1996 is semi-autobiographical and is significant in New Zealand literature as the first authentically New Zealand–Chinese play for mainstream audiences.
Courtney Sina Meredith is a New Zealand poet,playwright,and short story author.
Albert Alexander Amahou Belz is a New Zealand actor,writer and lecturer.
Tracey Slaughter is a New Zealand writer and poet.
Tina Makereti is a New Zealand novelist,essayist,and short story writer,editor and creative writing teacher. Her work has been widely published and she has been the recipient of writing residencies in New Zealand and overseas. Her book Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa won the inaugural fiction prize at the NgāKupu Ora Māori Book Awards in 2011,and Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings won the NgāKupu Ora Aotearoa Māori Book Award for Fiction in 2014.
Whiti Hereaka is a New Zealand playwright,novelist and screenwriter and a barrister and solicitor. She has held a number of writing residencies and appeared at literary festivals in New Zealand and overseas,and several of her books and plays have been shortlisted for or won awards. In 2022 her book Kurangaituku won the prize for fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and Bugs won an Honour Award in the 2014 New Zealand Post Awards for Children and Young Adults. She lives in Wellington,New Zealand.
Adrienne Jansen is a New Zealand creative writing teacher,editor and a writer of fiction,non-fiction and poetry. She has worked closely with immigrants,and her writing often relates to the migrant experience.
The Bruce Mason Playwriting Award is an annual award that recognises the work of an outstanding emerging New Zealand playwright. The winner is decided by the votes of a panel of leading New Zealand artistic directors and script advisors.
Renee Wen-Wei Liang is a New Zealand paediatrician,poet,essayist,short story writer,playwright,librettist,theatre producer and medical researcher. She has been the recipient of several awards for her services to arts,science and medicine and is also noted for her services to the Chinese New Zealand community. She lives in Auckland.
The Kia Mau Festival,previously called Ahi Kaa Festival,is a biennial performing arts festival in Wellington,New Zealand. In te reo Māori,kia mau is "a call to stay - an invitation to join us".
