Arts news |
14 Mar 2007
Lloyd Jones regional winner of Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2007
Creative New Zealand congratulates Lloyd Jones whose novel Mister Pip has won the South East Asia and South Pacific Region of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award 2007.
Creative New Zealand Chief Executive Stephen Wainwright said this was a wonderful and greatly deserved achievement for Lloyd Jones.
"Lloyd has been a fulltime writer for more than twenty years and is absolutely committed to his craft," Stephen Wainwright said.
"I'm delighted that Creative New Zealand has been able to support Lloyd - firstly to write Mister Pip and now to spend time in Berlin as this year's recipient of the Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers' Residency."
The overall winner of the 21st Commonwealth Writers' Prize will be announced on 27 May 2007 at the Calabash International Literary Festival in Jamaica. Lloyd Jones will join other regional winners from Africa, Canada and the Caribbean, and Europe and South Asia.
"Lloyd's reputation as a writer, the runaway success of Mister Pip and his Berlin residency will all enhance the international profile of New Zealand literature," Stephen Wainwright said. "I'd like to wish him the very best when the overall prize is announced in May."
Two other novels by New Zealand writers were shortlisted in the South East Asia and South Pacific Region. They were Ocean Roads (Huia Publishers) by James George of Auckland and The Fainter (Victoria University Press) by Damien Wilkins of Wellington. Lloyd Jones and the shortlisted writers wrote their novels with the support of Creative New Zealand grants.
Davey Darling (Penguin Books) by Paul Shannon of Auckland and The Fish & Chip Song (Vintage) by Carl Nixon of Christchurch were shortlisted in the Best First Book category of the South East Asia and South Pacific Region. The regional winner was Tuvalu by Andrew O'Connor of Australia.
The Commonwealth Writers' Prize, awarded annually, aims to reward the best in Commonwealth fiction written in English, by both established and new writers, and to take their work to a wider audience.
In 1989 Janet Frame was the regional winner and went on to win the overall Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award 1989 for The Carpathians. The following year, Auckland writer John Cranna won the overall Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book Award 1990 for Visitors.
The judging panel for the South East Asia and South Pacific Region was chaired by Dr Christine Prentice (New Zealand). She was joined by judges Dr Anne Brewster (Australia) and Sudesh Mishra (Australia).
