Emily Perkins

Lydia Wevers (Victoria University of Wellington)

Ed. by Jennifer Lawn, Massey University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 9.1.2: New Zealand Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Doreen D'Cruz (Massey University), Jennifer Lawn (Massey University), John C. Ross (Massey University), Mark Williams (Victoria University of Wellington)

Dates

Born 1970
Activity 1996-ongoing

Places

Born in New Zealand
Active in New Zealand; United Kingdom

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Story-writer

Resources

Perkins' Works

Save to Bookshelf

Born in Christchurch in 1970, Emily Perkins has pursued her writing career in both London and New Zealand. Her first book

Not her real name and other stories

(1996) was jointly published by Victoria University Press and Picador (UK). It was shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Award and won the Best First Book (Fiction) Award; it subsequently won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in the UK and was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Since then Perkins has published two novels and become known as a writer to watch.

Perkins's fiction inhabits a Gen-X world. Her characters are media and IT-savvy; they do drugs, alcohol and casual sex; their relationships are fraught and shifting; their lives are cheap and mobile. Perkins's first collection of stories Not her real name and other

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1320 words

Citation: Wevers, Lydia. "Emily Perkins". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 November 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11854, accessed 25 November 2024.]