Congratulations to Janet Frame, Michael King and Hone Tuwhare who have been recognised in the inaugural Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement, held in association with Creative New Zealand and announced tonight in the Grand Hall of Parliament Buildings.
Congratulations to Janet Frame, Michael King and Hone Tuwhare who have been recognised in the inaugural Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement, held in association with Creative New Zealand and announced tonight in the Grand Hall of Parliament Buildings.
Aimed at New Zealand writers who have made an outstanding contribution to New Zealand literature, the Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement were presented to Janet Frame of Dunedin for fiction; Michael King of Opoutere on the Coromandel Peninsula for non-fiction; and Hone Tuwhare of Kaka Point in South Otago, for poetry. Each writer received $60,000.

Announcing the Awards, Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Helen Clark said that Janet Frame, Michael King and Hone Tuwhare stand out as huge contributors to New Zealand writing.

"Janet Frame ranks as one of New Zealand's finest ever novelists, with an international reputation. Hone Tuwhare's poetry and plays are remarkable for their wit and wisdom as he tells the stories of his people. Michael King has established a formidable reputation as a chronicler of the history of New Zealand and its peoples," Miss Clark said.

The annual Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement are the result of an additional $1 million (inc. GST) per year to the literary sector, announced by the Government in May 2002. Representatives from the literary sector, Creative New Zealand and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage consulted on the best use of the additional funding. These Awards, along with the Creative New Zealand Writers' Fellowship awarded to Timaru writer Owen Marshall earlier this year, are two of the initiatives that were established.

Hone Tuwhare (Nga Puhi, Ngati Korokoro, Tautahi, Uri O Hau, Te Popoto) was born in 1922 at Kokewai, near Kaikohe. His first volume of poems, No Ordinary Sun (1964), was the first published collection of poems in English by a Maori writer and is in its 10th printing. Other collections and plays followed, including Mihi (1987), Deep River Talk (1993), Shape-Shifter (1997) and Piggy-Back Moon (2002). He has won many awards, fellowships and accolades for his work, and in 1999 was named the Te Mata Poet Laureate. He received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon Award earlier this year.

Michael King's first book, Moko, Maori Tattooing in the Twentieth Century, was published in 1972. Since then, he has written or edited 32 books, including biographies of Frank Sargeson and Janet Frame. The Frame biography, Wrestling with the Angel, was a bestseller and won the Montana Medal for Non-fiction and the Readers Choice Award in the 2001 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. His thirty-fourth book, The Penguin History of New Zealand, written to complement the late Sir Keith Sinclair's History, will be published later this month on 13 October. The publishers, Penguin Books, expect this book to become the established history of New Zealand. In 1988, Michael King was awarded an OBE for services to New Zealand literature.

Janet Frame's life has been well-chronicled in her award-winning, three-volume autobiography; the subsequent film of the books, An Angel at my Table; and in the Michael King biography. Born in Dunedin in 1924, Frame won the Hubert Church Memorial Award in 1952 for her first publication, The Lagoon and Other Stories. This was the first of many awards and accolades, including an honorary Doctor of Literature from Otago University in 1978, the inaugural Turnovsky Prize in 1984 and the 1990 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for her most recent novel, The Carpathians. Janet Frame has written 11 novels, five short story collections, a poetry collection and her autobiography. She is a member of the Order of New Zealand and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Earlier this year, she received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon Award.

For the Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement, New Zealanders were invited to nominate their choice of an outstanding New Zealand writer in the genres of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, who has made a significant contribution to New Zealand literature. The nominations were assessed by an expert literary panel and recommendations were forwarded to the Council of Creative New Zealand for approval.

Chair of Creative New Zealand Peter Biggs said that Janet Frame, Michael King and Hone Tuwhare stand out as "giant kauri within New Zealand's literary canon".

"Like the kauri, their writing is of this country - a towering presence across our historical and literary landscape," Mr Biggs said. "As someone who has devoured literature - especially New Zealand literature - all my life, I rejoice in these Awards and the Government's ongoing support both for literature and the arts of this country.

"They are a recognition of the tremendous role that New Zealand writers and writing have played - and continue to play - in shaping our sense of who we are as a nation."

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