Diana Wichtel (born 1950 in

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) is a

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writer and critic. Her mother, Patricia, was a New Zealander; her father, Benjamin Wichtel, a Polish Jew who escaped from the Nazi train taking his family to the

Treblinka Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The cam ...

extermination camp in

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. When she was 13 her mother brought her to New Zealand to live, along with her two siblings. Although he was expected to follow, she never saw her father again. The mystery of her father's life took years to unravel, and is recounted in Wichtel's award-winning book ''Driving to'' ''Treblinka''. The book has been called "a masterpiece" by New Zealand writer Steve Braunias. New Zealand columnist Margo White wrote: "This is a story that reminds readers of the atrocities that ordinary people did to each other, the effect on those who survived, and the reverberations felt through following generations." ''Driving to Treblinka'' won the

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Award for General non-fiction at the 2018

Ockham New Zealand Book Awards The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. The awards began in 1996 as the merger of two literary awards events: the New Zealand Book Awards, which ran from 1976 to 1995, and the Goodman Fielder W ...

. Wichtel was appointed staff writer at the ''

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'' in 1984. She joined the magazine from the English department at the

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, where she gained a Master in Arts, and also tutored. She has won many awards for her television criticism, profiles and feature writing. The New Zealand cultural critic and author

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has written of Wichtel's "genius" for television reviewing: "Her reviews often strike a tone of tolerant bemusement; she's a visitor from Mars bearing witness to the latest bonkers manifestation of modern culture." Wichtel was still writing for the ''Listener'' when its then publisher announced the magazine's closure in April 2020. ''

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s weekend magazine ''Canvas'' welcomed Wichtel as a fortnightly columnist in October 2020.

Awards

Wichtel has won numerous awards for her journalism: * 2001 Qantas Media Awards: Best Magazine Columnist: The Arts - Creative New Zealand Award. * 2011 Canon Media Awards Best Magazine Feature Writer Politics * 2011 Canon Media Awards Best Magazine Feature Writer Arts * 2012 Canon Media Awards: Magazine Feature Writer Arts and Entertainment. * 2013 Canon Media Awards: Reviewer of the Year * 2019 Voyager Media Awards Reviewer of the Year * 2016 Grimshaw Sargeson fellow * 2018 Royal Society Te Apārangi Award for General non-fiction: Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wichtel, Diana New Zealand journalists Canadian emigrants to New Zealand Living people 1950 births Writers from Vancouver University of Auckland alumni People educated at Westlake Girls High School New Zealand women journalists