Gina Cole | |
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 Cole in 2023 | |
| Born | 1960 (age 63–64) |
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| Genre | Indigenous science fiction |
Gina Annette Cole MNZM (born 1960) is a New Zealand writer and lawyer. Her writing is inspired by her experiences as a queer Fijian woman. Her short story collection Black Ice Matter received the award for best first book of fiction at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Her first novel Na Viro was published in July 2022.
Cole was born in 1960. [1] [2] She is of Fijian, Scottish and Welsh descent. [3] From 1963 to 1966, she and her family lived on Farewell Spit, where her father was the lighthouse keeper. [4] As of 2022 [update] , she lives in Auckland. [3] She studied law at the University of Auckland and was admitted to the bar in 1991. She practiced as a barrister until 2018, when she closed her practice to focus on her writing. [1] [5]
In 2013, Cole obtained a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Auckland, [5] [6] and in 2020 she earned a PhD in Creative Writing from Massey University on the topic of indigenous science fiction. [7] [8] [9] She has said that as "an Indigenous Fijian queer woman writer I feel it is so important that we Indigenous peoples tell our own stories so that we can put forward our perspective and experience". [10] In 2014, she won a writing contest at the Auckland Pride Festival run by Express magazine with her poem "Airport Aubade". [1] [11]
In 2017, Cole's short story collection Black Ice Matter received the award for best first book of fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. [3] [12] A review by Stuff said that the collection "would be a good book on any reckoning but as a first book it is simply outstanding"; it "shows an assurance of tone, a clarity of style and expression, and an ability to handle different voices, that would be the envy of most more experienced authors". [13] She also had an essay published in the collection New Writing edited by Thom Conroy, [14] and a short story published in Black Marks on the White Page edited by Witi Ihimaera and Tina Makereti. [15]
In 2018, she attended the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. [1] In 2021, she was a writer-in-residence at the Michael King Writers Centre through a residency for established Pasifika writers, [7] was the first Pasifika curator at the Auckland Writers Festival, [1] and had work published in the anthology Out Here: An Anthology of Takatapui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa New Zealand edited by Chris Tse and Emma Barnes. [16]
In July 2022, Cole's first novel Na Viro was published. It is a science fiction novel set in the distant future and featuring Pacific culture. [3] In the week before 15 July 2022, it was the second-best selling fiction book in New Zealand. [17] A review in the New Zealand Listener described it as an "ambitious book", "at the forefront of a new and particularly interesting genre", but noted that the book was challenging to read in some respects. [18] A review in Landfall concluded that Na Viro is "an important and enjoyable pioneering story that not only brings a uniquely Pasifika voice to the genre but also uses its inter-galactic plot to celebrate the traditions and challenges of the Pacific". [19]
Cole received the inaugural International Residency with Australia, a partnership between the Michael King Writers Centre and Varuna, The Writers' House. The award involved a month's residency at Varuna, to be taken up in October 2022, and an appearance at the Blue Mountains Writers' Festival. [20] In 2022 she had a story published in the First Peoples Shared Stories anthology, and gave the annual Peter Wells lecture at the Same Same But Different literary festival. [1]
In the 2023 New Year Honours, Cole was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature. [21] In June 2023, she was announced as the recipient of the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer's Residency, which provides for three months' residency at the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi. [1] [22] Her work was published in The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms (Routledge), Pacific Arts Aotearoa (Penguin) and A Kind of Shelter Whakaruru-Taha (Massey University Press). [1]
Catherine Chidgey is a New Zealand novelist, short-story writer and university lecturer. She has published eight novels. Her honours include the inaugural Prize in Modern Letters; the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship to Menton, France; Best First Book at both the New Zealand Book Awards and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize ; the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards on two occasions; and the Janet Frame Fiction Prize.
Oscar Vai To'elau Kightley is a Samoan-New Zealander actor, television presenter, writer, journalist, director, and comedian. He acted in and co-wrote the successful 2006 film Sione's Wedding.
Donna Tusiata Avia is a New Zealand poet and children's author. She has been recognised for her work through receiving a 2020 Queen's Birthday Honour and in 2021 her collection The Savage Coloniser won the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. The Savage Coloniser and her previous work Wild Dogs Under My Skirt have been turned into live stage plays presented in a number of locations.
Karlo Estelle Mila is a New Zealand writer and poet of Tongan, Pālagi and Samoan descent. Her first collection, Dream Fish Floating, received the NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry in 2006 at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. She has subsequently published two further poetry collections, A Well Written Body (2008) and Goddess Muscle (2020), the latter of which was longlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry.
Charlotte Grimshaw is a New Zealand novelist, short-story writer, columnist and former lawyer. She has written both fiction and non-fiction, often drawing on her legal experience. Her short stories and longer works often have interlinked themes and characters, and feature psychological and family dramas.
Fiona Farrell is a New Zealand poet, fiction and non-fiction writer and playwright.
Paula Jane Kiri Morris is a New Zealand novelist, short-story writer editor and literary academic. She is an associate professor at the University of Auckland and founder of the Academy of New Zealand Literature.
Daren (DK) Kamali is a Fijian-born New Zealand poet, writer, musician, and teacher and museum curator.
Mīria George is a New Zealand writer, producer and director of Māori and Cook Island descent. Best known for being the author of award-winning stage plays, George has also written radio, television and poetry, and was one of the film directors of the portmanteau film Vai. In November 2005, she won the Emerging Pacific Artist's Award at the Arts Pasifika Awards. Mīria George was the first Cook Islands artist to receive the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer's Residency at the University of Hawai'i.
Selina Tusitala Marsh is a New Zealand poet, academic and illustrator, and was the New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2017–2019.
Courtney Sina Meredith is a New Zealand poet, playwright, and short story author.
Rosanna Marie Raymond is a New Zealand artist, poet, and cultural commentator and Raymond was recognised for "Pasifika artists practicing contemporary and heritage art forms in Aotearoa," winning the Senior Pacific Artist Award Winner of 2018, at the Arts Pasifika Awards through Creative New Zealand.
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 Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards in 2011, and Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings won the Ngā Kupu Ora Aotearoa Māori Book Award for Fiction in 2014. She lives on the Kāpiti Coast, New Zealand.
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.
Laurence Fearnley is a New Zealand short-story writer, novelist and non-fiction writer. Several of her books have been shortlisted for or have won awards, both in New Zealand and overseas, including The Hut Builder, which won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards. She has also been the recipient of a number of writing awards and residencies including the Robert Burns Fellowship, the Janet Frame Memorial Award and the Artists to Antarctica Programme.
Michael Stephen Botur is a New Zealand author described as "one of the most original story writers of his generation in New Zealand." As a journalist, he has published longform news articles in VICE World News, NZ Listener, New Zealand Herald, Herald on Sunday, Sunday Star-Times, The Spinoff, Mana and North & South. His short fiction and poetry has been published in most New Zealand literary journals including Landfall, Poetry New Zealand and Newsroom. In 2023 he founded the mentoring service Creative Writing Northland.
Frankie McMillan is a writer of poetry, fiction and flash fiction. She lives in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Rebecca Kay Reilly is a New Zealand author. Her debut novel Greta & Valdin (2021) was a bestseller in New Zealand and received critical acclaim. It received the 2019 Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing, the Hubert Church prize for the best first book of fiction at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and the 2022 Aotearoa Booksellers' Choice Award.
The Michael King Writers Centre is a writing centre on the slope of Takarunga / Mount Victoria in Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand, which offers residencies to early career and experienced writers. It was established in 2005 in honour of New Zealand historian Michael King.
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