Rachel Barrowman (born 1963) 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 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

author and historian, with a focus on

cultural and intellectual history.

Career

Barrowman's biography of

R.A.K. Mason Ronald Allison Kells Mason (10 January 1905 – 13 July 1971) was a New Zealand poet. Described by Allen Curnow as New Zealand's "first wholly original, unmistakably gifted poet", he was born in Penrose, Auckland on 10 January 1905. He ...

, ''Mason: The Life of R.A.K. Mason'', won the 2004

Montana New Zealand Book Award 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 ...

in the biography category. In 2010, Barrowman received the Michael King Writer's Fellowship from

Creative New Zealand The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government, investing in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes and developing markets ...

to write a biography of ''

Maurice Gee Maurice Gough Gee (born 22 August 1931) is a New Zealand novelist. He is one of New Zealand's most distinguished and prolific authors, having written over thirty novels for adults and children, and has won numerous awards both in New Zealand an ...

''. The book, ''Maurice Gee: Life and Work'' '','' was a finalist 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 W ...

. Barrowman has also received the National Library Fellowship and the Stout Research Centre Fellowship.

Personal life

Barrowman was born and resides in

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 ...

Published books

* ''A Popular Vision: the Arts and the Left in New Zealand'', ''1930–1950'' (1991, Victoria University Press) * ''The Turnbull: a Library and Its World'' (1995, Auckland University Press) * ''Victoria University of Wellington'', ''1899–1999: A History'' (1999, Victoria University Press) * ''Mason: The Life of R.A.K. Mason'' (2003, Victoria University Press) * ''Maurice Gee: Life and Work'' (2015, Victoria University Press) Barrowman is also an editor of the ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.''

Career

Personal life

Published books

References

Further reading