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Short Story Awards 2021

$9000 PRIZE POOL Full details of how to enter + interview with new judge and award-winning Kiwi author Patricia Grace

There’s a chapter in Patricia Grace’s memoir where, while working as a teacher with her husband in Northland, she discovers the camaraderie of a Penwomen’s Society, which ran monthly writing competitions.

Grace (Nga¯ ti Toa, Nga¯ ti Raukawa, Te Ati A¯ wa) won the Ma¯ ori short story category every year, and she soon came to the attention of Longman Paul editor Phoebe Meikle who, sensing a gap in New Zealand’s literature, was searching for stories by Ma¯ ori and Pasifika writers. Grace’s first collection of short stories, Waiariki, was published in 1975, after which Grace recalls Meikle saying, ‘‘Now we want a novel from you.’’

Grace writes in From The Centre: A Writer’s Life, published this year: ‘‘When asked what most inspires me in my writing, the answer will always be ‘people’, everyday people.’’

Grace, 83, is the author of seven novels, including Cousins, which was recently made into a film; seven books of short stories, multiple children’s books and works of non-fiction, and the winner of dozens of accolades – too many to list, but including an honorary doctorate, and several NZ Book Award prizes.

She’s been made a Distinguished Companion of the NZ Order of Merit, and shortlisted for the Booker Prize. A strong waha (voice) in New Zealand’s literature scene, she’s campaigned for representations of Ma¯ ori, particularly in children’s books.

Now, Grace is the newest judge of the longrunning Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards. Grace will be judging a new category introduced for emerging Ma¯ ori writers, alongside author Amy McDaid who will be judging best emerging Pasifika writer, and open category judges Rosetta Allan and Megan Dunn.

With the support of new sponsor Milford Foundation, and existing sponsor Penguin Random House New Zealand, the $9000 prize pool is bigger than ever. Previous winners include novelists Kirsten McDougall, Eleanor Catton, and Carl Nixon.

‘‘I’m looking for a short story to take my interest right from the opening sentences, that will deliver some kind of a promise of what’s going to happen, and to see the development from that beginning,’’ says Grace.

‘‘The story could take off on some tangent, but always come back to that main thread of what I was expecting, or maybe, not expecting. Coming to some sort of conclusion, which needn’t be all the threads tied together, it may be left in the air.

‘‘It will have some sort of impact. And, good language used in a good way, good imagery, and hopefully it will avoid cliches – those things that bring writing down a little bit.’’

Amy McDaid says she’s looking for something original, ‘‘and surprises me in some way. The power of the short story is in its economy: every paragraph, every sentence, every detail working towards the bigger picture - building character, developing the setting, the story.

‘‘The impact of a short story doesn’t lie in a lesson for the reader - it’s about the journey and its impact on the reader along the way. I want a story that makes me feel something.’’

‘‘Decide you’re not going to be stuck. A good way of not getting stuck is to leave what you’re doing at the end of the day at a high point – mid paragraph, or something like that, so you can pick up easily in the morning.’’ Patricia Grace

In From The Centre, Grace writes she ‘‘never found herself in a book. (Children’s) books still very much represented the nuclear Pa¯ keha¯ family’’.

And what of the representations that were there? Grace notes prejudices and untruths: Colonisers were pioneers, Ma¯ ori were barbarians.

Grace’s first novel, Mutuwhenua, published in 1978, follows the story of Ripeka, who leaves her extended wha¯ nau to marry a Pa¯ keha¯ teacher. Grace’s own father had told his family how he had let his wha¯ nau know he was marrying a Pa¯ keha¯ woman. Sylvia Plath once said everything in life is writeable about, if you have the guts to do it.

‘‘It’s never been my aim to hurt people or expose people unnecessarily,’’ says Grace, when asked about how to delicately meld fact and fiction. ‘‘But there’s usually a way of writing about something, difficult aspects.

‘‘What I have always wanted to concentrate on is the positive aspect of Ma¯ ori life. Not in every case, but there’s enough negativity out there via the media or whatever, so I’ve wanted to depict us leading our ordinary everyday lives, because in functional communities, and functional homes, that never gets an airing otherwise.’’

More than 40 years after Grace’s first book, how much has Ma¯ ori representation in literature evolved? ‘‘It’s changing slowly,’’ she says over the phone. The Star-Times was supposed to meet Grace near her Ka¯ piti home when lockdown level 4 kicked in. Grace seems unperturbed (‘‘Ka¯ piti is a nice place to be’’). Her son bought her a Kindle during the previous lockdown. It’s much easier to get books now, and the Kindle packs a softer landing when she falls asleep mid-page.

‘‘I think the publishers are looking out for writers from different backgrounds,’’ Grace continues. ‘‘Although there’s always been that resistance – there’s a long way to go before that stops happening – there’s a lot more awareness of other languages, other cultures, and I think that’s a good thing.

‘‘When I was starting out . . . we didn’t have any academic-type young people, or any age people, who were Ma¯ ori who were critiquing Ma¯ ori work by Ma¯ ori, and so sometimes our work would meet with a different understanding of

ourselves. Now we’ve got a whole lot of writers who are coming from within the culture and who can critique and give opinions and so forth. That’s a very big difference, a welcome one.’’

As the quintessential literary advice goes – reading is key to being a good writer. Grace reads every night, quite often in the small hours. ‘‘I am a bit of an insomniac . . . (I) wake up at two in the morning and read for a couple of hours and go back to sleep. Otherwise, I only read during lunch.’’

She counts local writer Becky Manawatu (Aue¯) as among her favourites, and she’s been reading Amitav Ghosh and Rohinton Mistry. In her earlier writing years she was inspired by the likes of Janet Frame, Frank Sargeson, Maurice Shadbolt, Ian Cross and Witi Ihimaera.

Writing Mutuwhenua was a learning curve. But she trusted the process and every work of writing was an opportunity to learn and improve. She struggles through writer’s block by ‘‘just keeping on going’’. Grace laughs. ‘‘Even though I know what I’m writing is probably rubbish.’’

The same goes for others: ‘‘Just keep working at it. Decide you’re not going to be stuck. A good way of not getting stuck is to leave what you’re doing at the end of the day at a high point – mid paragraph, or something like that, so you can pick up easily in the morning, so you know what you’re doing there.’’

Grace’s other secret? Pencil and paper. ‘‘I find the ideas flow better for me when I’m just handwriting in a notebook. Now and again I want to work things out on a scrap piece of paper, and it’s not a plan or anything, but just a paragraph or even a chapter, which I can’t quite grab. It’s like brainstorming, I suppose.’’ Eventually, she throws the paper away.

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