Laurence Fearnley

Last updated

Laurence Fearnley
Born1963 (age 61–62)
Occupationwriter
Awards Robert Burns Fellowship
Academic background
Alma mater Victoria University of Wellington
Thesis Boden Black (A Novel) and With Axe and Pen in the New Zealand Alps: Differences Between Overseas and New Zealand Written Accounts of Climbing Mount Cook 1882-1920 and the Emergence of a New Zealand Voice in Mountaineering Literature  (2012)
Doctoral advisor Bill Manhire
John Thomson

Laurence Fearnley (born 1963) 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.

Contents

Biography

Laurence Fearnley was born in 1963. [1] Her parents emigrated from England to New Zealand. [2] She grew up in Christchurch, travelled to Europe and later lived in Wellington where she worked as a curator in art galleries and museums. [3] [4]

She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing (2012) from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. [1] For her thesis, she looked at accounts of the first attempts to climb Aoraki/Mount Cook. [5] [6]

Her books, including her trilogy Butler's Ringlet, Edwin and Matilda and Mother's Day, have a strong sense of landscape and are often set in small towns of Southland and Central Otago in southern New Zealand. [4] Her short stories have been broadcast on the radio and published in anthologies and in literary journals, including Sport and Landfall.

Awards and prizes

Fearnley has received a number of awards and grants for her writing and several of her books have been shortlisted for or have won awards. Room was shortlisted for the 2001 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Edwin and Matilda was longlisted for the Dublin Prize in 2008 [7]  and was also runner-up in the fiction category of the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. The Hut Builder won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards [8] and was shortlisted for the 2010 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature. [9] Going Up is Easy was a finalist in the 2015 Banff Mountain Literature Award. [10] Reach was longlisted for the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. [11] [1]

Fearnley has been twice to Antarctica, first as an Arts Fellow under the Artists to Antarctica Programme in January 2004 [12] (her book Degrees of Separation draws on this experience) and again as a tutor with students of the Graduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies from the University of Canterbury in December 2005. [13] She spent a month in 2006 at the Island of Residencies fellowship in Tasmania [14] [4] and held the Robert Burns Fellowship in 2007. [15]

In 2014, she  took part in Roadwords, [16] a literary tour of southern South Island towns, with three other writers: Pip Adam, Tina Makereti and Lawrence Patchett, who met each other when they were all studying for PhDs at Victoria University. [17] [18]  

In 2016 she received the NZSA Janet Frame Memorial Award, [19] the NZSA / Auckland Museum Research Grant [20] and the Friends of the Hocken Collections Award. [21]

She was joint winner of the 2017 Landfall Essay Competition for her essay 'Perfume Counter'. [22]

She has taken part in several literary festivals including the Nelson Arts Festival, [23] Tauranga Arts Festival [24] [25] and Word Christchurch 2018. [26] [27]

Fearnley was awarded the NZSA Peter and Dianne Beatson Fellowship for 2023–2024. [28]

In 2025 her book At the Grand Glacier Hotel made longlist for the International Dublin Literary Award. [29]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Frame</span> New Zealand author (1924–2004)

Janet Paterson Frame was a New Zealand author. She is internationally renowned for her work, which includes novels, short stories, poetry, juvenile fiction, and an autobiography, and received numerous awards including being appointed to the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civil honour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mandy Hager</span> New Zealand writer

Amanda Hager is a writer of fiction and non-fiction for children, young adults and adults. Many of her books have been shortlisted for or won awards, including Singing Home the Whale which won both the Young Adult fiction category and the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2015. She has been the recipient of several fellowships, residencies and prizes, including the Beatson Fellowship in 2012, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship in 2014, the Waikato University Writer in Residence in 2015 and the Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award in 2019.

Alison Wong is a New Zealand poet and novelist of Chinese heritage. Her background in mathematics comes across in her poetry, not as a subject, but in the careful formulation of words to white space and precision. She has a son with New Zealand poet Linzy Forbes. She now lives in Geelong. She is a 2024 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lloyd Jones (New Zealand author)</span> New Zealand writer

Lloyd David Jones is a New Zealand author. His novel Mister Pip (2006) won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Jones (writer)</span> New Zealand writer and poet

Tim Jones is a New Zealand writer and poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiona Farrell</span> New Zealand writer (born 1947)

Fiona Farrell is a New Zealand poet, fiction and non-fiction writer and playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Morris</span> New Zealand writer

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Quigley</span> New Zealand author

Sarah Quigley is a New Zealand writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Neale</span> New Zealand novelist and poet

Emma Neale is a novelist and poet from New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Else</span> New Zealand writer, editor and playwright

Barbara Helen Else, also known as Barbara Neale, is a New Zealand writer, editor, and playwright. She has written novels for adults and children, plays, short stories and articles and has edited anthologies of children's stories. She has received a number of awards and fellowships including the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature, the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal and the Victoria University of Wellington's Writer's Fellowship.

Janice Marriott is a writer, editor, audio producer, screenwriter, creative writing tutor and mentor, manuscript assessor, poet and gardener. Several of her books have been shortlisted for or won awards and she has also been the recipient of a number of writing residencies, as well as the prestigious Margaret Mahy Medal in 2018. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand.

The NZSA Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship is an annual literary fellowship in New Zealand established by Peter and Dianne Beatson in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tina Makereti</span> New Zealand writer

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Norcliffe</span> New Zealand writer

James Samuel Norcliffe is a New Zealand novelist, short story writer, poet, editor, teacher and educator. His work has been widely published and he has been the recipient of a number of writing residencies. Several of his books have been shortlisted for or won awards, including The Loblolly Boy which won the New Zealand Post Junior Fiction Award in 2010. He lives at Church Bay, Lyttelton Harbour, New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whiti Hereaka</span> New Zealand writer (born 1978)

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.

The NZSA Janet Frame Memorial Award was an award for mid-career fiction or poetry writers. It was named after New Zealand writer Janet Frame, who died in 2004, and funded by a gift from the Janet Frame Literary Trust. It was awarded biennially from 2008 to 2016.

John Millen Lasenby, commonly known as Jack Lasenby, was a New Zealand writer. He wrote over 30 books for children and young adults, many of which were shortlisted for or won prizes. He was also the recipient of numerous awards including the Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award in 2003 and the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement for Fiction in 2014.

Shirley Corlett is a writer of fiction for children and adults. She lives in Masterton, New Zealand.

Siobhan Harvey is a New Zealand and UK author, editor and creative writing lecturer. She writes poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. In 2021, she was awarded the Janet Frame Literary Trust Award for Poetry.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Fearnley, Laurence". New Zealand Book Council: Te Kaunihera Pukapuka o Aotearoa. November 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  2. ↑ "Laurence Fearnley: beauty of MacKenzie Country in fiction". RNZ . 4 June 2022. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
  3. ↑ Gilchrist, Shane (29 September 2014). "Rocky relations". Otago Daily Times . Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 Smith, Charmian (9 May 2009). "Writer draws on small NZ towns for inspiration". Otago Daily Times . Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  5. ↑ "Laurence Fearnley". Victoria University of Wellington: International Institute of Modern Letters. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  6. ↑ Fearnley, Jura (2012). Boden Black (A Novel) and With Axe and Pen in the New Zealand Alps: Differences Between Overseas and New Zealand Written Accounts of Climbing Mount Cook 1882-1920 and the Emergence of a New Zealand Voice in Mountaineering Literature (Doctoral thesis). Open Access Repository Victoria University of Wellington, Victoria University of Wellington. doi: 10.26686/wgtn.17000845 .
  7. ↑ Irvine, Lindesay (12 November 2008). "147 authors fight it out for the Impac Dublin prize". The Guardian . Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  8. ↑ "New Zealand Post Book Awards". Christchurch City Libraries . Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  9. ↑ Ryan, Mick (17 September 2010). "Boardman Tasker Prize - The 2010 Shortlist". UKClimbing. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  10. ↑ "Banff Mountain Book Competition Announces Winners". Rock and Ice. 9 November 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  11. ↑ "New Zealand's Book Awards Announce First-Ever Longlist". Creative NZ. 26 November 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  12. ↑ "Previous Artists & Media in Antarctica". Antarctica New Zealand. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  13. ↑ "Prose: Laurence Fearnley: Antarctica – Looking Back". Flash Frontier: an adventure in short fiction. 31 December 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  14. ↑ "Otago Announces 2007 Arts Fellowships". The Big Idea. 17 November 2006. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  15. ↑ "Laurence Fearnley – 2007". University of Otago: Nourishing the Roots. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  16. ↑ "About the Authors". Roadwords: A literary tour of southern NZ towns. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  17. ↑ "Roadwords: A literary tour of southern towns by four award winning writers". Creative NZ. 5 August 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  18. ↑ "Bringing literature to smaller towns". Otago Daily Times . 7 August 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  19. ↑ "Laurence Fearnley wins Janet Frame Memorial Award 2016". NZSA The New Zealand Society of Authors (Pen NZ Inc) Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa. 18 November 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  20. ↑ "Laurence Fearnley ( 2017)". Michael King Writers Centre. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  21. ↑ "Friends of the Hocken Collections Award". Friends of the Hocken Collections. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  22. ↑ "Landfall Essay Competition winners share prize for radically different topics". Booksellers NZ. 6 November 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  23. ↑ Ritchie, Judith (21 September 2016). "Acclaimed authors share thoughts on writing". Stuff . Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  24. ↑ "Scents of a Landscape". Tauranga Arts Festival. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  25. ↑ "Beyond the Visual". Tauranga Arts Festival. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  26. ↑ "To the Mountains: WORD Christchurch Festival 2018". Christchurch City Libraries. 3 September 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  27. ↑ "To The Mountains". WORD Christchurch. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  28. ↑ "Fearnley awarded NZ$10,000 NZSA Peter and Dianne Beatson Fellowship". Books+Publishing. 9 October 2023. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  29. ↑ "Home". Dublin Literary Award. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  30. ↑ Barry, Rebecca (5 May 2009). "A surprising glimmer of hope". New Zealand Herald . Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  31. ↑ Harvey, Siobhan (16 July 2011). "Laurence Fearnley interview". NZ Listener. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  32. ↑ Lightbourne, Amie (29 January 2016). "Book Review: Going Up is Easy, by Lydia Bradey, with Laurence Fearnley". Booksellers NZ. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  33. ↑ "Reach". Radio New Zealand. 12 October 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  34. ↑ "Laurence Fearnley's new novel The Quiet Spectacular". Radio New Zealand. 3 July 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  35. ↑ "Alpine inspiration: Laurence Fearnley & Paul Hersey". Radio New Zealand. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  36. ↑ "Book review: Scented by Laurence Fearnley". Elizabeth Heritage. 19 February 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  37. ↑ "Winter Time by Laurence Fearnley". Academy of New Zealand Literature. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  38. ↑ "At The Grand Glacier Hotel by Laurence Fearnley". www.penguin.co.nz. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.