Porirua Writer's Walk - Patricia Grace
Patricia Grace is a major New Zealand novelist, short story writer and children’s writer. She is of Ngati Toa, Ngati Raukawa and Te Ati Awa descent, and is affiliated to Ngati Porou by marriage. Grace began writing early, whilst teaching and raising her family of seven children.
About Patricia Grace
Patricia has won many national and international awards, including the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize for fiction in 2001, the Deutz Medal for Fiction in 2005, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2008 (widely considered the most prestigious literary prize after the Nobel). A deeply subtle, moving and subversive writer, Grace also received in 2007 a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to literature.Patricia Grace was the 2014 Honoured New Zealand Writer at the Auckland Writers Festival.Grace's latest novel Chappy - her first novel in ten years – was released in 2015. It follows the story of young man (Chappy) who ventures back to New Zealand to reconnect to his Maori culture and ancestry. From Aotearoa, Chappy becomes involved in the international affair of war, making Chappy a powerful demonstration of the ties that Maori have with the wider world. The novel was a finalist in the Fiction section of the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.