Shonagh Koea

Shonagh Maureen Koea (born 1939) is a New Zealand fiction writer.[1]

Shonagh Koea
Born1939
Taranaki, New Zealand
OccupationWriter

Biography

Koea was born in Taranaki, New Zealand, in 1939, and grew up in Hastings, Hawke's Bay.[2][3][4] She became a journalist and began working at the Taranaki Herald newspaper in New Plymouth. There she met and married a fellow journalist, George Koea of Te Āti Awa.[5][6] She wrote novels as a pastime; however none were published.[7] In her late 20s Koea stopped writing fiction, disillusioned with her lack of success. However, ten years later, in 1981, she submitted a story to New Zealand's leading literary contest of the time (the Air New Zealand Short Story Competition) and won.[7] Her stories began to be published in magazines such as The Listener.

Koea's husband died in 1987, and in 1990 she moved to Auckland.[3] Since then, she has been a full-time writer; she has received a number of literary grants and fellowships, and produced novels, short stories and memoirs.[3]

Works

Recurring themes in Koea's writing are personal relationships and their difficulties, and men's and women's roles in the family. Male characters are often oppressive, and females initially helpless; after a period, however, the women eventually take charge of their own destiny.[3] Her narratives have been likened to those of fellow New Zealand writers Katherine Mansfield and Frank Sargeson, which also centred on familiar characters and situations.[3]

Koea's main publisher is Random House.

Collections of short stories
  • 1987 - The Woman Who Never Went Home and Other Stories
  • 1993 - Fifteen Rubies by Candlelight
  • 2013 - The Best of Shonagh Koea's Short Stories

Novels
  • 1989 - The Grandiflora Tree
  • 1992 - Staying Home and Being Rotten
  • 1994 (and reissued in 2007) - Sing To Me, Dreamer
  • 1996 - The Wedding at Bueno-Vista
  • 1998 - The Lonely Margins of the Sea
  • 2001 - Time for Killing
  • 2003 - Yet Another Ghastly Christmas
  • 2007 - The Kindness of Strangers: Kitchen Memoirs
  • 2013 - Rain
  • 2014 - Landscape with Solitary Figure

Awards and recognition
  • Winner, Air New Zealand Short Story Competition, 1981[3]
  • Queen Elizabeth II Literature Committee Writing Bursary, 1989 and 1992[4]
  • University of Auckland Fellowship in Literature, 1993[8]
  • Buddle Finlay Sargeson Fellowship, 1997[8]
  • The Lonely Margins of the Sea was runner up for the Deutz Medal for Fiction in the 1999 Montana New Zealand Book Awards[3]
  • Sing to Me, Dreamer was a finalist in the 1995 New Zealand Post Book Awards[1]
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References
  1. [www.randomhouse.co.nz], Random House Books New Zealand. "Shonagh Koea - Authors - Random House Books New Zealand". Random House New Zealand. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  2. Stachurski, Christina (2005). "Koea, Shonagh (1939– )". In Benson, Eugene; Conolly, L.W. (eds.). Encyclopedia of post-colonial literatures in English. 2 (2nd ed.). Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-27887-2. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  3. "New Zealand Book Council". www.bookcouncil.org.nz. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  4. Benson, Eugene (2004). Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. Routledge. p. 778. ISBN 0-415-27885-6.
  5. "Issue 96 December 15 2000 -". www.manaonline.co.nz. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  6. "The writer's resilience revealed". Stuff.co.nz. 21 September 2007. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  7. "Quote Unquote: Tim Wilson on Shonagh Koea". quoteunquotenz.blogspot.co.nz. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  8. Hill, Rebecca Barry (3 May 2014). "Shonagh Koea: Her dark materials". New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
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