Peter Northe Wells (8 February 1950 – 18 February 2019) was a New Zealand writer, filmmaker, and historian.
He was mainly known for his fiction, but also explored his interest in gay and historical themes in a number of expressive
drama
Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
and
documentary films from the 1980s onwards.
Career
Film
Wells's first feature film was ''
Desperate Remedies
''Desperate Remedies'' is the second novel by Thomas Hardy, albeit the first to be published. It was released anonymously by Tinsley Brothers in 1871.
Plot summary
In ''Desperate Remedies'' a young woman, Cytherea Graye, is forced by pove ...
'' (1993), co-directed with
Stewart Main.
This take on New Zealand's colonial beginnings was selected to screen at the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...
, and represented an expressionistic alternative to the "
man alone" machismo that dominated New Zealand film in the 1970s and 80s.
Writing
In the years that followed, Wells concentrated on developing his writing career. His short stories and novels have been widely praised. In 1996 he collaborated with theatre director
Colin McColl on an operatic dramatization of
Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer, essayist and journalist, widely considered one of the most influential and important authors of the modernist movement. Her works are celebr ...
's
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) 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 second-largest city in New Zealand by m ...
stories, commissioned for the NZ International Festival of the Arts. Two short stories from his 1991 collection ''Dangerous Desires'' have been filmed to date: ''Of Memory & Desire'', the tale of a Japanese couple travelling around New Zealand, was adapted by
Niki Caro
Nikola Jean Caro (born 20 September 1966) is a New Zealand film director and screenwriter. Her 2002 film '' Whale Rider'' was critically praised and won a number of awards at international film festivals. She directed the 2020 live action vers ...
as her first feature film in 1997. The same year, working from a Wells script, Stewart Main directed 1960s coming of age story ''One of THEM!'' as an hour-long short.
In 1998, with Stephanie Johnson, he founded the
Auckland Writers Festival
Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki is the largest annual literary festival in Aotearoa New Zealand since 1999. It has about 200 public events each year featuring local and international writers as guests.
History and staff
The inaug ...
, and in 2016 he founded a festival to promote
LGBTQI
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is ...
writers called ''same same but different (ssbd)'' which includes an annual prize The Peter Wells Writing Award.
Honours and awards
Wells's 2003 novel ''Iridescence'' was a runner-up in the fiction category of the
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 ...
and a finalist in the 2005
Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize
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, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
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.
In the
2006 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 2006 in some Commonwealth realms were announced (on 31 December 2005) in
the United Kingdom,
New Zealand, Grenada, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, and Saint Christopher and Nevis to ...
, Wells was appointed a
Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rend ...
, for services to literature and film.
He was awarded the
Michael King Michael King may refer to:
* Michael King (historian) (1945–2004), New Zealand popular historian, author and biographer
*Michael King (baseball) (born 1995), American baseball player
*Michael F. King, original developer of the ProvideX computer la ...
Fellowship in 2011.
In 2009 Wells was awarded a New Zealand non-fiction literary prize, convened by CLL (Copyright Licensing Ltd) to write a series of biographical essays on William Colenso, entitled ''The Hungry Heart''. The book was anticipated to "not be a conventional biography, but an essay series that bears directly on the episodes of heartbreak, loneliness, and sometimes horror that chequered the life of this gifted renaissance man – printer, writer, botanist, explorer, ex-missionary and intellectual maverick". The book was published in 2011. Journalist Geoffrey Vine, reviewing the book for the ''
Otago Daily Times'', wrote that it had "set a new standard in the writing of New Zealand history and Wells deserves every accolade".
Personal life
Wells, who was gay, was married to the writer
Douglas Lloyd Jenkins.
Wells died from prostate cancer at Mercy Hospice in Auckland on 18 February 2019.
Works
Bibliography
*
**Short story collection. Won 1992 NZ Book Award for Fiction and 1992 PEN (NZ) Best First Book in Prose Award.
**The feature film ''
Memory and Desire'' (1997) directed by
Niki Caro
Nikola Jean Caro (born 20 September 1966) is a New Zealand film director and screenwriter. Her 2002 film '' Whale Rider'' was critically praised and won a number of awards at international film festivals. She directed the 2020 live action vers ...
, was based on Wells' short story "Of Memory and Desire" in this collection.
*
*
*
* ''Best Mates: Gay Writing in Aotearoa New Zealand'' (1997) Edited by Peter Wells and Rex Pilgrim. Auckland: Reed
* ''Frock Attack! Wig Wars!: Strategic Camp in Desperate Remedies'' (1997) Auckland: Centre for Film, Television and Media Studies, University of Auckland
* ''Long Loop Home: a memoir'' (2001) Auckland: Vintage. Won the Biography Category of the 2002 Montana NZ Book Awards
* ''Iridescence'' (2003) Auckland: Vintage. Runner-up for the 2004 Deutz Medal for Fiction and shortlisted for the Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize 2005
* ''On Going to the Movies'' (2005) Series editor Lloyd Jones. Wellington: Four Winds Press
* ''The Cat's Whiskers: New Zealand Writers on Cats'' (2005) Edited by Peter Wells. Auckland: Vintage
* ''Lucky Bastard'' (2007) Auckland: Random House
* ''The Hungry Heart'' (2012) Auckland: Random House
* ''Little Joker Sings'' (2013) Auckland: Random House
* ''Journey to a Hanging'' (2014) Auckland: Random House
* ''Dear Oliver: Uncovering a Pākehā History'' (2018) Massey University Press
Filmography and videography
*''Foolish Things'' (1980)
*''Little Queen'' (1984)
*''Jewel's Darl'' (1985)
*''My First Suit'' (1985)
*''Newest City on the Globe: Art Deco Napier'' (1985). Auckland: Moving Image Centre.
*''Newest City on the Globe'' (1985). Written and directed by Peter Wells. Produced and edited by Stewart Main. Auckland: TVNZ.
*''A Death in the Family''. Film for television with Stewart Main.
*''Drama on Film''. Wellington: New Zealand Film Commission.
*''The Mighty Civic'' (1988) Documentary co-directed by Wells and Stewart Main. Wellington: New Zealand Film Commission.
*''A Taste of Kiwi'' (1990)
*''
Desperate Remedies
''Desperate Remedies'' is the second novel by Thomas Hardy, albeit the first to be published. It was released anonymously by Tinsley Brothers in 1871.
Plot summary
In ''Desperate Remedies'' a young woman, Cytherea Graye, is forced by pove ...
'' (1993). Written by Wells and co-directed by Wells and Main. Isambard Productions.
*''Naughty Little Peeptoe'', with Garth Maxwell.
*''One of Them'' Written by Wells and directed by Main.
*''Georgie Girl'' (2001)
Installations
* ''Temples of Wonder'' Installation at the Hawkes Bay Museum, Napier.
References
External links
*
*
List at University of Auckland New Zealand Literature File of works by and about WellsMy Favourite Room: Peter Wellswith Peter (2013), PrideNZ.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Peter
1950 births
2019 deaths
New Zealand male short story writers
New Zealand film directors
Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit
New Zealand gay writers
New Zealand LGBT novelists
New Zealand male novelists
New Zealand biographers
Male biographers
LGBT film directors
Gay novelists
Deaths from prostate cancer
Deaths from cancer in New Zealand
New Zealand LGBT screenwriters