Fiona Kidman
Dame Fiona Kidman is one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed and best-loved novelists. Among her many awards and honours, she has a DNZM, OBE and two French honours, including the French Legion of Honour.
Dame Fiona won the 2019 Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize for her novel This Mortal Boy.
2021 festival sessions
Sense of Justice
- in conversation with Jane Forrest Waghorn
Fiona has never shied away from the big topics both on and off the page. She has a deep interest in social justice and telling the story of “outsiders”.
Fiona reflects on the causes she has taken up over her career, from her feminist writings in the 70s and 80s, to telling the tragic tale of Albert Black, one of the last people to be executed in this country, in This Mortal Boy (2018).
All the Way to Summer
- in conversation with Tessa Nicholson
Dame Fiona marked her 80th birthday last year with the publication of All the Way to Summer, a beautiful volume of stories; all moving, insightful and written with love. The final stories trace her own history of love, a memoir of significant people from childhood and beyond.
The collection is the perfect starting point for a conversation about her extraordinary life.