Shonagh Koea
| Shonagh Koea | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1939 Taranaki, New Zealand |
| Residence | Auckland, New Zealand |
| Occupation | Writer |
Shonagh Maureen Koea (born 1939) is a New Zealand fiction writer and one of the country's leading novelists.[1]
Biography
Koea was born in Taranaki, New Zealand, in 1939 and grew up in Hastings, Hawke's Bay.[2][3] She became a journalist and began working at the Taranaki Herald newspaper in New Plymouth. There she met and married a fellow journalist, George Koea of Te Āti Awa.[4][5] She wrote novels as a pastime; however none were published.[6] In her late 20s Koea stopped writing fiction, disillusioned with her lack of success. However, ten years later, in 1981, she submitted a story to New Zealand's leading literary contest of the time (the Air New Zealand Short Story Competition) and won.[6] Her stories began to be published in magazines such as The Listener.
Koea's husband died in 1987, and in 1990 she moved to Auckland.[2] Since then, she has been a full-time writer; she has received a number of literary grants and fellowships, and produced novels, short stories and memoirs.[2]
Works
Recurring themes in Koea's writing are personal relationships and their difficulties, and men's and women's roles in the family. Male characters are often oppressive, and females initially helpless; after a period, however, the women eventually take charge of their own destiny.[2] Her narratives have been likened to those of fellow New Zealand writers Katherine Mansfield and Frank Sargeson, which also centred on familiar characters and situations.[2]
Koea's main publisher is Random House.
Collections of short stories
- 1987 - The Woman Who Never Went Home and Other Stories
- 1993 - Fifteen Rubies by Candlelight
- 2013 - The Best of Shonagh Koea's Short Stories
Novels
- 1989 - The Grandiflora Tree
- 1992 - Staying Home and Being Rotten
- 1994 (and reissued in 2007) - Sing To Me, Dreamer
- 1996 - The Wedding at Bueno-Vista
- 1998 - The Lonely Margins of the Sea
- 2001 - Time for Killing
- 2003 - Yet Another Ghastly Christmas
- 2007 - The Kindness of Strangers: Kitchen Memoirs
- 2013 - Rain
- 2014 - Landscape with Solitary Figure
Awards and recognition
- Winner, Air New Zealand Short Story Competition, 1981[2]
- Queen Elizabeth II Literature Committee Writing Bursary, 1989 and 1992[3]
- University of Auckland Fellowship in Literature, 1993[7]
- Buddle Finlay Sargeson Fellowship, 1997[7]
- The Lonely Margins of the Sea was runner up for the Deutz Medal for Fiction in the 1999 Montana New Zealand Book Awards[2]
- Sing to Me, Dreamer was a finalist in the 1995 New Zealand Post Book Awards[1]
External links
- Interview with Shonagh Koea by the Cultural Icons project
- Shonagh Koea in the 2001 TV documentary The Big Art Trip
References
- 1 2 [www.randomhouse.co.nz], Random House Books New Zealand. "Shonagh Koea - Authors - Random House Books New Zealand". Random House New Zealand. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "New Zealand Book Council". www.bookcouncil.org.nz. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
- 1 2 Benson, Eugene (2004). Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. Routledge. p. 778. ISBN 0-415-27885-6.
- ↑ "Issue 96 December 15 2000 -". www.manaonline.co.nz. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
- ↑ "The writer's resilience revealed". Stuff.co.nz. 21 September 2007. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
- 1 2 "Quote Unquote: Tim Wilson on Shonagh Koea". quoteunquotenz.blogspot.co.nz. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
- 1 2 Hill, Rebecca Barry (3 May 2014). "Shonagh Koea: Her dark materials". New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 24 April 2016.