Emily Justine Perkins (born 1970 in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

) is a New Zealand author.

Early life

Perkins was born in Christchurch. She graduated from Toi Whakaari with a Diploma in Acting in 1989. She also studied writing at Victoria University.

Career

Perkins first won attention in 1996 with her first collection of stories, ''Not Her Real Name and Other Stories''. Perkins' novels are ''Leave Before You Go'' (

Picador A ''picador'' (; pl. ''picadores'') is one of the pair of horse-mounted bullfighters in a Spanish-style bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the ''tercio de varas'', which is the first of the three stages in a stylized bullf ...

, 1998), ''The New Girl'' (Picador, 2001), ''Novel About My Wife'' (

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a U ...

, 2008), and ''The Forrests'' (

, 2012). A longtime resident of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, Perkins lived in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

where she was employed by both

The University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

as a creative writing tutor and

AUT University Auckland University of Technology (AUT) ( mi, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT ...

as a lecturer. She now lives in Wellington, where she is a senior lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington

International Institute of Modern Letters The International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) ( mi, Te Pūtahi Tuhi Auaha o te Ao) is a centre of creative writing based within Victoria University of Wellington. Founded in 2001, the IIML offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses (i ...

. Perkins presented a television series about books called ''The Good Word'' 2009–2012.

Awards

''Not Her Real Name and Other Stories'' was shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Award and won the Best First Book (Fiction) Award. Subsequently, it also won the

Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize is a British literary prize established in 1963 in tribute to Geoffrey Faber, founder and first Chairman of the publisher Faber & Faber. It recognises a single volume of poetry or fiction by a United Kingdom, Irish ...

. ''Novel About My Wife'' won the 2009

Montana 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 ...

and the

Believer Book Award Believer Book Award is an American literary award presented yearly by '' The Believer'' magazine to novels and story collections, nonfiction books or essay collections, poetry collections, and, beginning in 2021 (awarding to books published in 2020) ...

. ''The Forrests'' was tipped by the

Hay Festival The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival ( cy, Gŵyl Y Gelli), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, t ...

to win the 2012 Man Booker Prize, but failed to reach the long list. Perkins was appointed a

Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have ren ...

in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to literature.

Publications

*Perkins, Emily (1998). ''Leave Before You Go''.

. . *Perkins, Emily (2002). ''The New Girl''. Picador. . *Perkins, Emily (2008). ''Novel About My Wife''.

. *Perkins, Emily (2012). ''The Forrests''. Bloomsbury Publishing .

References

External links

Official website2008 Interview at books site Pickle Me ThisInterview with Emily Perkins on her first play
Standing Room Only,

Radio New Zealand National RNZ National ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa Ā-Motu), formerly Radio New Zealand National, and known until 2007 as the National Programme or National Radio, is a publicly funded non-commercial New Zealand English-language radio network operat ...

, 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins, Emily 1970 births Academic staff of the Auckland University of Technology Living people Victoria University of Wellington alumni New Zealand women novelists New Zealand women short story writers 20th-century New Zealand novelists 21st-century New Zealand novelists 21st-century New Zealand women writers Believer Book Award winners 20th-century New Zealand short story writers 21st-century New Zealand short story writers Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit 20th-century New Zealand women writers Toi Whakaari alumni