Craig Cliff (born 1983) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

short story writer and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

Background

Craig Cliff was born in

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...

in 1983. He graduated from

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

with an MA in Creative Writing.

Career

In 2007, Cliff won the novice category of the 2007

Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award The Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award was a competition for short stories in New Zealand which ran every two years from 1959 to 2003 and every year from 2004 to 2014. The competition had multiple categories, including an essay section until 19 ...

for his short story "Another Language". He won the 2011

Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...

, Best First Book for his short story collection ''A Man Melting''. His first novel, ''The Mannequin Makers'', was published in 2013. According to Sam Finnimore in ''The New Zealand Listener'', "The Mannequin Makers lives up to its cover blurb billing Cliff as a talent to watch – it’s tremendous, darkly entertaining and original from start to finish." The novel was also published in the US, UK and in Romanian translation. ''Nailing Down the Saint'', Cliff's second novel, was published in 2019. From 2010 to 2014, Cliff wrote a fortnightly column for the '' Dominion Post''. He participated in the University of Iowa's International Writing Program in 2013. In 2015 Cliff was a recipient of Eleanor Catton's Horoeka Grant. In response he wrote an essay on the rise of professional video gaming. He received the 2017 Robert Burns Fellowship.

Works

Short story collections

*''A Man Melting'' Vintage, 2010,

Novels

*''The Mannequin Makers'' Vintage, 2013, *''Nailing Down the Saint'' Vintage, 2019,

References

External links

Author's websiteAuthor's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cliff, Craig 1983 births New Zealand male short story writers People from Palmerston North Victoria University of Wellington alumni Living people International Writing Program alumni