Patricia Grace
Personal Information
Description
Patricia Frances Grace DCNZM QSO (née Gunson; born 17 August 1937) is a New Zealand Māori writer of novels, short stories, and children's books. She began writing as a young adult, while working as a teacher. Her early short stories were published in magazines, leading to her becoming the first female Māori writer to publish a collection of short stories, Waiariki, in 1975. Her first novel, Mutuwhenua: The Moon Sleeps, followed in 1978. Since becoming a full-time writer in the 1980s, Grace has written seven novels, seven short-story collections, a non-fiction biography and an autobiography. Her works explore Māori life and culture, including the impact of Pākehā (New Zealand European) and other cultures on Māori, with use of the Māori language throughout. Her most well-known novel, Potiki (1986) features a Māori community opposing the private development of their ancestral land. She has also written a number of children's books, seeking to write books in which Māori children can see their own lives. Grace is a pioneering and influential figure in New Zealand literature, and over her career has won a number of awards, including the Kiriyama Prize, the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, two honorary doctorates of literature, a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement, and an Icon Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand for extraordinary lifetime achievement. Her books have twice won the top award for fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards. She was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DCNZM) in 2007, for services to literature. (Source: Wikipedia)
Books
Baby no-eyes
Tawera and his sister are inseparable, in a relationship that is impossible for others to share. In fact his whole whanau is bonded by secrets, a genealogy stitched together by shame, joy, love and sometimes grief. Patricia Grace's new novel merges recent headlines with stories of a heartfelt family history. It is an account of the mysteries that operate at many levels between generations, where the present is the pivot, the centre of the spiral, looking outward to the past and future that define it.
Cousins
Mutuwhenua
[This book] is about different kinds of love: the love of Ripeka (who is also Ngaio and Londa) for her parents and her extended family, and their love for her; love of the land and of traditional Maori ways of living; and love between Ripeka and Graeme, a young Pakeha schoolteacher. It is the story ... of Ripeka's attempts to free herself from the old bondings, and of what happens when, after her marriage, she moves away physically into a Pakeha and urban world and discovers that she cannot move away spiritually - discovers the strength of the old ways. ..."--Back cover.
Selected Stories
Dogside story
There is conflict in the whanau. The young man, Te Rua, holds a 'secret for life, the one to die with'. But he realizes that if he is to acknowledge and claim his daughter the secret will have to be told. 'The Sisters' are threatening to drag the whanau through the courts. But why? What is really going on?
Ned & Katina
During the Second World War, wounded Maori Battalion soldier Ned Nathan fallls in love with Katina in Crete. They return to live in the Far North of New Zealand.
Potiki
This book is about the Tamihana family who faces many problems. A disabled boy comes into their life out of nowhere but is immediately becomes a part of the family. The community is brought together by this one child because he also comes with a special gift of knowing. Unfortunately, this family hits a turning point. There is some unfinished business from the past that comes into play with their lives again.