'Keri Hulme' (born
March 9,
1947) is a
New Zealand writer, best known for ''
The Bone People'', her only novel.
Hulme was born in
Christchurch, in New Zealand's
South Island. The daughter of a carpenter and a credit manager, she was the eldest of six children. Her parents were of
English,
Scottish, and
MÄori descent. Hulme's early education was at North New Brighton Primary School and Aranui High School. Her father died when she was eleven years old.
Hulme worked as a tobacco picker in
Motueka after leaving school. She began studying for an honours law degree at the
University of Canterbury in 1967, but left after four terms and returned to tobacco picking. By 1972, she decided to begin writing full-time, but, despite family support, was forced to go back to work nine months later. She continued writing, some of her work appearing under the pseudonym Kai Tainui. All this while, she continued working on her novel ''
The Bone People'', ultimately published in February 1984. The novel was returned by several publishers before being accepted by the Spiral Collective, but won the 1984
New Zealand Book Award for Fiction and the
Booker Prize in 1985.
Hulme was a writer-in-residence at
Otago University in 1978, and at the
University of Canterbury in 1985. She lives in
Okarito, in
Westland, New Zealand. Hulme has been the Patron of the
Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand since
1996. She identifies as
asexual.
[1]
Bibliography
'Novels'
★ ''
The Bone People'' (1984)
★ ''
Bait'' and ''
On the Shadow Side'' (in progress; referred to by Hulme as 'twinned novels')
'Poetry'
★ ''The Silences Between (Moeraki Conversations)'' (1982)
★ ''Lost Possessions'' (1985)
★ ''Strands'' (1992)
'Short stories'
★ ''Te Kaihau: The Windeater'' (1986)
★ ''Te Whenua, Te Iwi/The Land and The People'' (1987)
★ ''Homeplaces: Three Coasts of the South Island of New Zealand'' (1989)
★ ''Stonefish'' (2004)
See also
★
New Zealand literature
★
Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand
External links
★
Keri Hulme's blog
★
Hulme works on conservation of Okarito's coast
★
Archived summary of Los Angeles Times book review in August 2005
★
The University of Auckland Library's bibliography of Keri Hulme's work and associated book reviews, as of October 2005.