New Zealand Writers

CHIDGEY, Catherine

Chidgey proves herself to be among that elite group of authors who possess a true grasp of the patterns of life.

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CHIDGEY, Catherine (1970 - ) is a novelist and short story writer whose first novel, In a Fishbone Church, was a critically acclaimed multi-award winner, and a New Zealand bestseller.

Born and raised in Lower Hutt, Chidgey was educated at Victoria University, and in Berlin, where she held a DAAD scholarship for post-graduate study in German literature.

In a Fishbone Church won the Best First Book of Fiction award in the 1998 Montana New Zealand Book Awards, and was runner up for the Deutz Medal. It also won the Best First Book award in the South-East Asia/South Pacific section of the 1999 Commonwealth Writers Prize, and a 1999 Betty Trask award in the UK. It has been published in Australia,the UK, and Germany.

Critics have praised Chidgey's "unusually fine emotional register" (Cath Kenneally, Landfall), describing the novel as "a triumph of lightness" (Elizabeth Smither, New Zealand Herald), "[a]n exceptional achievement" (The Bookseller, UK), "a wry, tender and absorbing first novel" (Emily Perkins, Times Literary Supplement).

The novel attracted the notice of overseas critics and authors: Louis de Bernieres writes that "[t]his book is warm, subtle and evocative. You will be thinking about it long after you have finished reading." Nick Hornby describes Chidgey as "a wonderful new talent."

Short stories have appeared in journals including Landfall, Sport and the NZ Listener and in the anthologies Mutes and Earthquakes (1997), and The Picnic Virgin (1999). Chidgey won the 1997 Listener Womens Book Festival short story competition.

Catherine Chidgey held a Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship in 1998, and is a member of the Sargeson Trust. She received the inaugural Adam Foundation Prize in 1998 (awarded each year to one graduate of the Victoria University Masters degree programme in creative writing), and was awarded the 1999 Todd New Writers' Bursary.

Chidgey's second novel, Golden Deeds (2000) was a runner-up in the Fiction category of the 2000 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

Linda Burgess writes in the Dominion "So - is Chidgey's second novel as good? I think it is... I glided through this immensely readable, beautifully written, rather profound, thoroughly excellent book."

The book has received rave reviews in the British press. "Golden Deeds is a wonderful, gripping read," writes the Sunday Express. "Chidgey proves herself to be among that elite group of authors who possess a true grasp of the patterns of life"

The Times Literary Supplement describes it as "magnanimous and merciless, a work reminiscent at times of darkest Atwood."

Golden Deeds is published in the US by Henry Holt, under the title The Strength of the Sun.

Catherine Chidgey was the 2001 Meridian Energy Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellow.

(KC.)

Updated Information

Catherine Chidgey won the the inaugural Glenn Schaeffer Prize in Modern Letters in 2002. With a cash award of $60,000 it is Australasia's most lucrative literary award.

In 2003 she shared The Ursula Bethell Residency with Gavin Bishop.

Catherine Chidgey was recently judged the best New Zealand novelist under 40 in a Listener critics’ poll.

The Transformation (2003). In the 1890s, a wig-maker by the name of Dubois flees his native Paris in order to escape his past, and settles in the small town of Tampa, Florida. Chidgey's third novel is an extraordinary historical adventure and mystery.

Catherine Chidgey was awarded the 2005 Robert Burns Fellowship. She was invited to stay on for the first half of its 2006 tenure, to continue working on her fourth novel.

Chidgey translated Donkeys, a German children's book by Adelheid Dahimene-Heide Stollinger. It was printed by Gecko Press in 2005.

Writers in Schools

Catherine is available to talk to senior school pupils as part of the Writers in Schools programme. She will speak to them about her development as a writer, the importance of workshopping, the place of creative writing courses, and her writing process. She will also offer advice to budding writers. She will speak to up to 30 students at one time, but prefers smaller groups.