Laurence Fearnley (born 1963) is a New Zealand short-story writer, novelist and non-fiction writer. Several of her books have been shortlisted for or have won awards, both in New Zealand and overseas, including ''The Hut Builder'', which won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards. She has also been the recipient of a number of writing awards and residencies including the

Robert Burns Fellowship The Robert Burns Fellowship is a New Zealand literary residency. Established in 1958 to coincide with bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Robert Burns, it is often claimed to be New Zealand's premier literary residency. The list of past ...

, the Janet Frame Memorial Award and the Artists to Antarctica Programme.

Biography

Laurence Fearnley was born in 1963. Her parents emigrated from England to New Zealand. She grew up in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, travelled to Europe and later lived in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

where she worked as a curator in art galleries and museums. She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing (2012) from the

International Institute of Modern Letters The International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML; ) is a centre of creative writing based within Victoria University of Wellington. Founded in 2001, the IIML offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses (including a PhD in creative writing) ...

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington (), also known by its shorter names "VUW" or "Vic", is a public university, public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and w ...

. For her thesis, she looked at accounts of the first attempts to climb

Aoraki/Mount Cook Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand. Its height, , is listed as . It is situated in the Southern Alps, the mountain range that runs the length of the South Island. A popular tourist destination, it is also a favourite ch ...

. Her books, including her trilogy ''Butler's Ringlet'', ''Edwin and Matilda'' and ''Mother's Day,'' have a strong sense of landscape and are often set in small towns of Southland and

Central Otago Central Otago is an area located in the inland part of the Otago region in the South Island of New Zealand. The motto for the area is "A World of Difference". The area is dominated by mountain ranges and the upper reaches of the Clutha River ...

in southern New Zealand. Her short stories have been broadcast on the radio and published in anthologies and in literary journals, including ''Sport'' and ''Landfall''.

Awards and prizes

Fearnley has received a number of awards and grants for her writing and several of her books have been shortlisted for or have won awards. ''Room'' was shortlisted for the 2001

Montana New Zealand Book Awards The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. The awards began in 1996 as the merger of two literary awards events: the New Zealand Book Awards, which ran from 1976 to 1995, and the Goodman Fielder Wa ...

. ''Edwin and Matilda'' was longlisted for the Dublin Prize in 2008 and was also runner-up in the fiction category of the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. ''The Hut Builder'' won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards and was shortlisted for the 2010

Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature is an annual prize of £3,000 awarded by the Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust to an author or authors for "an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature". The p ...

. ''Going Up is Easy'' was a finalist in the 2015 Banff Mountain Literature Award. ''Reach'' was longlisted for the 2016

Ockham New Zealand Book Awards The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. The awards began in 1996 as the merger of two literary awards events: the New Zealand Book Awards, which ran from 1976 to 1995, and the Goodman Fielder Wa ...

. Fearnley has been twice to Antarctica, first as an Arts Fellow under the Artists to Antarctica Programme in January 2004 (her book ''Degrees of Separation'' draws on this experience) and again as a tutor with students of the Graduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies from the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

in December 2005. She spent a month in 2006 at the Island of Residencies fellowship in Tasmania and held the

in 2007. In 2014, she took part in Roadwords, a literary tour of southern South Island towns, with three other writers:

Pip Adam Pip Adam is a novelist, short story writer, and reviewer from New Zealand. Background Adam was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. She attended the New Zealand Film and Television School in Christchurch before moving to Dunedin. Adam has an ...

Tina Makereti Tina Makereti is a New Zealand novelist, essayist, and short story writer, editor and creative writing teacher. Her work has been widely published and she has been the recipient of writing residencies in New Zealand and overseas. Her book ''Onc ...

and Lawrence Patchett, who met each other when they were all studying for PhDs at Victoria University. In 2016 she received the NZSA Janet Frame Memorial Award, the NZSA / Auckland Museum Research Grant and the Friends of the Hocken Collections Award. She was joint winner of the 2017

Landfall Essay Competition The ''Landfall'' Essay Competition is an annual competition open to New Zealand writers. It is judged by the current editor of the long-running literary magazine ''Landfall'' and the winning entry is published in a subsequent issue of the maga ...

for her essay 'Perfume Counter'. She has taken part in several literary festivals including the Nelson Arts Festival, Tauranga Arts Festival and Word Christchurch 2018. Fearnley was awarded the NZSA Peter and Dianne Beatson Fellowship for 2023–2024. In 2025 her book ''At the Grand Glacier Hotel'' was a finalist for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the

and made longlist for the

International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award (), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. It promotes excellence in world literature and is solely ...

Bibliography

*''The Sound of Her Body'' (Hazard Press, 1998) *''Room'' (Victoria University Press, 2000) *''Delphine’s Run'' (Penguin, 2003) *''Butler's Ringlet'' (Penguin, 2004) *''Degrees of Separation'' (Penguin, 2006) *''Edwin and Matilda'' (Penguin, 2007) *''Mother's Day (''Penguin New Zealand, 2009) *''The Hut Builder'' (Penguin, 2010) *''Going Up is Easy by''

Lydia Bradey Lydia Pounamu Bradey (born 9 October 1961) is a New Zealand mountaineer. She became the first woman to summit Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen in 1988. She has climbed Mount Everest a total of six times. Early life Lydia Bradey was bo ...

with Laurence Fearnley (Penguin, 2015) *''Reach'' (Penguin, 2014) *''The Quiet Spectacular'' (Penguin, 2016) *''To the Mountains: A collection of New Zealand alpine writing'' selected by Laurence Fearnley and Paul Hersey (Otago University Press, 2018) *''Scented'' (Penguin, 2019) *''Winter Time'' (Penguin, 2022) *''At the Grand Glacier Hotel'' (Penguin, 2024)

References

External links

Biography
at New Zealand Book Council: Te Kaunihera Pukapuka o Aotearoa {{DEFAULTSORT:Fearnley, Laurence 1963 births Living people International Institute of Modern Letters alumni 20th-century New Zealand novelists 20th-century New Zealand women writers 20th-century New Zealand short story writers 20th-century New Zealand non-fiction writers 21st-century New Zealand novelists 21st-century New Zealand women writers 21st-century New Zealand short story writers 21st-century New Zealand non-fiction writers New Zealand women short story writers New Zealand women novelists