Emily Perkins receives Order of Merit for services to literature
The IML Senior Lecturer has been appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Emily Perkins has been appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in recognition of her services to literature.
The honour came 'absolutely out of the blue' and Emily says she was 'sort of astonished and delighted' at the recognition. Read more
The award-winning novelist and short story writer is a Senior Lecturer at the International Institute of Modern Letters, convening the MA in Creative Writing, alongside Chris Price.
She has held the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Residency and in 2011 was named an Arts Laureate by the Arts Foundation. She is frequently invited to present her work and discuss New Zealand fiction at literary events in NZ and abroad, and was a member of New Zealand’s 2012 Guest of Honour programme at the Frankfurt Book Fair. She is also a member of The Folio Prize Academy.
Emily's first book, the 1996 short story collection Not Her Real Name was widely acclaimed, winning the Montana Award for Best First Book of Fiction (NZ) and the the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize (UK). She has since published four novels, including Novel About My Wife, which won the Montana Book Award (NZ) and the Believer Book of the Year (US). Her most recent book, The Forrests was selected as a Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph, Observer, and New Statesman among other publications, longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2013 and shortlisted for Best Book of Fiction in the 2013 New Zealand Post Book Awards.
In 2015 she was commissioned by Auckland Theatre Company to adapt Ibsen's The Doll's House for a new theatre season, which premiered at the Maidment Theatre and will be staged at Wellington's Circa Theatre in August. have a She has also written for film, adapting Eleanor Catton's The Rehearsal for the screen with director Alison McLean.