Becky Manawatu
Becky Manawatu | |
---|---|
![]() August 2020 | |
Born | Becky Wixon 1982 (age 41–42) Nelson, New Zealand |
Occupation | Journalist |
Nationality | New Zealand |
Education | Buller High School |
Notable works | Auē |
Notable awards |
|
Becky Manawatu (born 1982) is a New Zealand writer.[1] In 2020, she won two Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for her first novel, Auē[2][3] and Best Crime Novel at the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards.
Biography
Manawatu was born Becky Wixon in June 1982 in Nelson, New Zealand, and raised in Waimangaroa on the West Coast of the South Island, 15 minutes from Westport, attending Waimangaroa Primary School.[1][4] She met her husband Tim while at Buller High School and has two children, Siena and Maddox.[1][3] Manawatu left home at age 18 years to accompany her husband's career as a professional rugby player and coach in Italy and Frankfurt, Germany.[3] The couple returned to New Zealand in 2016 to Nelson, where Manawatu began a Diploma in Writing at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology.[1] After six months the couple moved back to Waimangaroa, and Manawatu began working as a reporter at the Westport News, the smallest independent daily newspaper in New Zealand.[1][3]
Writing
Manawatu began writing her first novel, Auē, while living in Frankfurt, and first approached publisher Mary McCallum of Mākaro Press in April 2016.[3] She continued it in Nelson under the working title Pluck, submitting three chapters to McCallum in November 2016 and a manuscript in January 2017; it eventually went through five rounds of editing over a year.[1][3] Much of the novel was written in a family friend's house at the mouth of the Mōkihinui River north of Westport. A formative experience that led to the novel was the murder of Manawatu's 10-year-old cousin Glen Bo Duggan by his abusive stepfather when Manawatu was 11.[1][3] The novel tells the story of eight-year-old orphan Arama sent to live with rural relatives at Kaikōura and his teenage brother Tauriki.[5]
Manawatu was longlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2018, and an essay of hers was selected for a Landfall anthology.[1]
Auē was published by Mākaro Press in August 2019 in a run of 500 copies, and was launched at Whare Tangaroa, a clifftop house at Cape Foulwind.[3] On 12 May 2020 it won the $55,000 Jann Medicott Acorn Prize for Fiction (New Zealand's richest literary prize), as well as the Hubert Church Prize for best first book of fiction, at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.[6][3] It also won the Best Crime Novel and was shortlisted for the Best First Novel at the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards.[5] The judges described it as "a breath-taking expose of lives lived on the margins, and the fight for redemption and absolution".[5] Auē was the best-selling New Zealand novel of 2020 and 2021.[1][7]
Manawatu won the 2021 Robert Burns Fellowship to work on her next novel, titled Papahaua, in Dunedin.[1]
Personal life
Manawatu is of Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mamoe, Waitaha and Pākehā background.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Arnold, Naomi (9 December 2020). "Profile: Becky Manawatu, by Naomi Arnold". Newsroom. Archived from the original on 8 December 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
- ^ "Winners | New Zealand Book Awards Trust". www.nzbookawards.nz. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Braunias, Steve (14 May 2020). "Book of the year: The making of Auē". Newsroom. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ Matthews, Philip (20 March 2020). "Words from the dark: writer Becky Manawatu and the real story behind her novel". Stuff. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
- ^ a b c "Ngaio Marsh Award 2020 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 2 November 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
- ^ "Manawatu wins New Zealand Book Award for fiction". Books+Publishing. 13 May 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ Braunias, Steve (24 December 2021). "The best-selling books of 2021". Newsroom. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
- v
- t
- e
- 1959 Ian Cross
- 1960 Maurice Duggan
- 1961 John Caselberg
- 1962 R.A.K. Mason
- 1963 Maurice Shadbolt
- 1964 Maurice Gee
- 1965 Janet Frame
- 1966–67 James K. Baxter
- 1968 Ruth Dallas
- 1969 Warren Dibble
- 1970 O. E. Middleton
- 1971 Noel Hilliard
- 1972 Ian Wedde
- 1973 Graham Billing
- 1974 Hone Tuwhare
- 1975 Witi Ihimaera
- 1976 Sam Hunt
- 1977 Keri Hulme
- 1977–78 Roger Hall
- 1978 Peter Olds
- 1979 Michael A. Noonan
- 1980 Philip Temple
- 1981–82 William Sewell
- 1983 Rawiri Paratene
- 1984 Brian Turner
- 1985–86 Cilla McQueen
- 1987 Robert Lord
- 1988 John Dickson
- 1989 Renée
- 1990 David Eggleton
- 1991 Lynley Hood
- 1992 Owen Marshall
- 1993 Stuart Hoar
- 1994 Christine Johnston
- 1995 Elspeth Sandys
- 1996 Bernadette Hall
- 1997 Paddy Richardson
- 1998–99 Michael King
- 1999 Paula Boock
- 2000 James Norcliffe
- 2001 Jo Randerson
- 2002 Alison Wong
- 2003 Nick Ascroft
- 2003 Sarah Quigley
- 2004 Kate Duignan
- 2005–06 Catherine Chidgey
- 2006 Dianne Ruth Pettis
- 2007 Laurence Fearnley
- 2008 Sue Wootton
- 2009 Michael Harlow
- 2010 Michele Powles
- 2011 Fiona Farrell
- 2012 Emma Neale
- 2013 David Howard
- 2014 Majella Cullinane
- 2015 Louise Wallace
- 2016 Victor Rodger
- 2017 Craig Cliff
- 2018 Rhian Gallagher
- 2019 Emily Duncan
- 2020 John Newton
- 2021 Becky Manawatu
- 2022 Albert Belz
- 2023 Kathryn van Beek
- 2024 Mikaela Nyman