Acclaimed novelist to visit Wellington

Australian novelist Michelle de Kretser will be reading her fiction and talking about her work with Emily Perkins in one of the highlights of the winter reading series, Writers on Mondays.

The event, which takes place at Te Papa on Monday 7 September, is part of Michelle de Kretser’s visit to Victoria University‘s International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) where she will conduct a master class for creative writing students on the MA and PhD programmes.

Ms de Kretser, who is one of Australia’s most gifted writers of fiction, is the author of five books including the recent novella Springtime. Her work is noted for masterly storytelling and extraordinary vividness: In her review of Questions of Travel, acclaimed English novelist A S Byatt wrote: “It is not really possible to describe, in a short space, the originality and depth of this long and beautifully crafted book.” Questions of Travel was recognised by many prizes including the Miles Franklin Award and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction.

Ms de Kretser’s second novel, The Hamilton Case, won the Tasmania Pacific Prize, the Encore Award (United Kingdom) and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Southeast Asia and Pacific).

In 2007, The Lost Dog was one of 13 novels long-listed for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Ms de Kretser was a founding editor of the Australian Women’s Book Review and has worked as a university tutor and book reviewer. She wrote her first novel while on sabbatical from her editorial position at Lonely Planet.

Emily Perkins, senior lecturer at the IIML, says: “We‘re delighted that Wellington audiences will have this opportunity to experience, in person, Michelle de Kretser’s work and her thoughts about writing and the world. Reading her fiction is a profound, unsettling, life-enhancing experience. With uncanny insights into the tiny details and large ideas that drive a life, she creates characters and stories that move and provoke.”

Michelle de Kretser will be reading at Te Papa at 12.15pm on Monday 7 September. Entry is free.