FROM THE OXFORD COMPANION TO NEW ZEALAND LITERATURE
Hulme, Keri (1947–2021), novelist, short story writer and poet, gained international recognition with her award-winning the bone people. Within New Zealand, she held writing fellowships at several universities, served on the Literary Fund Advisory Committee (1985–89) and the Indecent Publications Tribunal (1985–90), and in 1986–88 was appointed ‘cultural ambassador’ while travelling in connection with the bone people.
Born and raised in Otautahi, Christchurch, Hulme is the eldest of six children. Her father, a carpenter and first-generation New Zealander whose parents came from Lancashire, died when Hulme was 11. Her mother came from Oamaru, of Orkney Scots and Māori descent (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe). Hulme was schooled at North New Brighton Primary School and Aranui HS (Christchurch). Her holidays were spent with her mother’s extended family at Moeraki, on the Otago East Coast, a landscape filled with the residue of its Māori past, which remained important for linking Hulme with her Māori ancestors: ‘I lov
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Keri Hulme Biography
Nationality: New Zealander. Born: Christchurch, 1947. Education: North Beach primary school; Aranui High School; Canterbury University, Christchurch. Career: Formerly, senior postwoman, Greymouth, and director for New Zealand television; writer-in-residence, Canterbury University, 1985. Awards: New Zealand Literary Fund grant, 1975, 1977, 1979, and scholarship in letters, 1990; Katherine Mansfield Memorial award, for short story, 1975; Maori Trust Fund prize, 1978; East-West Centre award, 1979; ICI bursary, 1982; New Zealand writing bursary, 1984; Book of the Year award, 1984; Mobil Pegasus prize, 1985; Booker prize, 1985; Chianti Ruffino Antico Fattor award, 1987.
PUBLICATIONS
Novels
The Bone People. Wellington, Spiral, 1983; London, Hodder andStoughton, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 1985.
Lost Possessions (novella). Wellington, Victoria University Press, 1985.
Short Stories
The Windeater/Te Kaihau. Wellington, Victoria University Press, 1986; London, Hodder and Stoughton, and New York, Braziller, 1987.
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Biography
Keri Hulme, a New Zealand native, was born on March 9, 1947, in Christchurch, New Zealand. She is the daughter of John W., a carpenter and businessman, and Mere, a credit manager, and sister to five siblings. Her father died when she was eleven years old. Hulme is descended from a rich background. She noted in Contemporary Women Poets that she is a mix of “Kai Tahu, Kāti Mamoe (South Island Maori); Orkney islanders; Lancashire folk; Faroese and/or Norwegian migrants” (see Mimicry, Ambivalence, and Hybridity). Her early education was at Aranui High School. Upon graduation, she began working at a tobacco farm harvesting crop. Between 1967-68, Hulme sought a law degree from the University of Canterbury, but did not complete her degree. After leaving law school, Hulme returned to tobacco picking. Throughout her career she has held numerous other jobs including fisher, TV director, cook, and a writer. She was a writer in residence at Otago University in New Zealand in 1978, and in 1985, at the University of Canterbury. Keri Hulme has said that she enjoys fishing, painti