Martin Edmond (born 1952 in

Ohakune Ohakune is a small town at the southern end of Tongariro National Park, close to the southwestern slopes of the active volcano Mount Ruapehu, in the North Island of New Zealand. A rural service town known as New Zealand's Carrot Capital, Ohak ...

) is a New Zealand author and screenplay writer. He is the son of writer Lauris Edmond.

Biography

Edmond studied Anthropology and English, graduating MA in English from

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

. He spent a year working as a junior lecturer before joining avant garde theatre group

Red Mole :''See also the International Marxist Group (Germany). The International Marxist Group (IMG) was a Trotskyist group in Britain between 1968 and 1982. It was the British Section of the Fourth International. It had around 1,000 members and supporte ...

, with whom he spent five years as a writer and actor. He has lived in Sydney, Australia since 1981. He has a Doctorate of Creative Arts from Western Sydney University with his dissertation on Australian artists Rex Battarbee and Albert Namatjira.

Writing career

Edmond has written screenplays for several New Zealand feature films, including '' Illustrious Energy'' (1987); '' The Footstep Man'' (1991) and '' Terra Nova'' (1996). Edmond has written over 20 books. They include ''Streets of Music'' (1980), ''Houses, Days, Skies'' (1988), ''The Autobiography of My Father'' (1992), and ''The Resurrection of

Philip Clairmont Philip Anthony Clairmont (1949–1984) was a New Zealand painter. Biography Clairmont was born on 15 September 1949 in Nelson and named Philip Anthony Haines until his mother changed the family name in the early seventies. He attended Nelson Col ...

'' (1999). ''The Autobiography of My Father'' was nominated for a 1993 Wattie's Book Award, and ''The Resurrection of Philip Clairmont'' was a finalist in the 2000

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 W ...

. ''Dark Night'' (2011) is a partial

Colin McCahon Colin John McCahon (; 1August 191927May 1987) was a prominent New Zealand artist whose work over 45 years consisted of various styles, including landscape, figuration, abstraction, and the overlay of painted text. Along with Toss Woollaston and ...

biography, and was successful in Australia. ''The Dreaming Land'' (2015) is a personal tale of a 1950s and 60s childhood in New Zealand. His 2017 book ''The Expatriates'' (

Bridget Williams Books Bridget Williams Books is a New Zealand book publisher, established in 1990 by Bridget Williams. Establishment Williams established the company in 1990 when the company she was working for, Allen & Unwin, was sold. She purchased the titles ...

, ) is a history of four extraordinary New Zealanders: Harold Williams,

Ronald Syme Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Rom ...

John Platts-Mills John Faithful Fortescue Platts-Mills, (4 October 1906 – 26 October 2001) was a British barrister and left-wing politician. He was the Labour Party Member of Parliament for Finsbury from 1945 to 1948, when he was expelled from the party effecti ...

, and Joe Trapp; Edmond used research material passed on by the late James McNeish. ''Bus Stops on the Moon: Red Mole Days 1974-1980'' about Edmond's experiences with Red Mole was published in 2020 and was longlisted for the 2021

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 W ...

for general nonfiction.

Awards and honours

*2004 Landfall Essay Competition *2005 Montana New Zealand Book Award in Biography for ''Chronicle of the Unsung'' *2013

Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement is a New Zealand literary award established in 2003 by the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand), the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government. Each ...

*2015 Michael King Writers Fellowship

References

External links

*
Review
of ''The Resurrection of Philip Clairmont'' and biographical notes 1952 births Living people New Zealand screenwriters New Zealand male screenwriters People from Ohakune New Zealand emigrants to Australia Victoria University of Wellington alumni 21st-century New Zealand writers 20th-century New Zealand writers 20th-century New Zealand male writers People educated at Kuranui College {{NewZealand-writer-stub