Patricia Grace
Patricia Grace (Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa, Te Ati Awa) is one of Aotearoa’s most prominent and celebrated writers. She has published six novels and seven short story collections, as well as a number of books for children and a work of non-fiction.
She won the New Zealand Book Awards for Fiction for Potiki in 1987, the Montana NZ Book Awards and Deutz Medal for Tu in 2005 and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2001 with Dogside Story. Her children’s book The Kuia and the Spider won the New Zealand Picture Book of the Year in 1982.
2022 festival session
From the Centre: A Writer's Life
- in conversation with Paula Morris
In From the Centre: A Writer's Life Patricia Grace takes us through her childhood, education, marriage and up to the present day, in this touching and self-deprecating story of her life – the life of a writer, of a Māori woman and of a teacher. It expresses the love for family and for ancestral land; shows the prejudices she's had to face and what made her stronger; and tracks her career as a writer. “(From The Centre) is the curated memories of a beloved wāhine Māori who readers will enjoy getting close to . . . She is bold, unafraid to do what is right for her and her stories.” Emma Espina in the Sunday Star-Times
We’re thrilled to welcome back Patricia Grace to the Marlborough Book Festival. Don’t miss this chance to hear her in conversation with Paula Morris.