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Keri Hulme

Keri Hulme

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Keri Hulme was a New Zealand author and poet, principally known for her first novel, The Bone People, which won the Booker Prize 1985. She died on December 27th 2021

Her first book, The Silences Between: Moeraki Conversations (1982), is a verse collection noted for its unique and varied use of language. The Bone People, Hulme’s most acclaimed work, features three characters she first created as an 18-year-old. Hulme also published Te Kaihau/The Windeater (1986), a collection of short stories, and the collections of poetry Lost Possessions (1985) and Strands (1992). Stonefish (2004) is a collection of short stories.

Watch

Booker Prize 1985 full ceremony

Watch the full Channel 4 broadcast of the controversial 1985 Booker Prize winning ceremony, including interviews with the shortlisted authors and the deeply divided judges.

Keri Hulme on The Bone People

‘Despite the violence… I find it to be a book of some considerable joy.’ Author Keri Hulme shares her thoughts on her powerful and influential 1985 Booker Prize-winning novel, The Bone People, including the relationships between the main protagonists – both Māori and Pākehā (white people).

Keri Hulme wins The Booker Prize 1985

Watch the moment Keri Hulme’s The Bone People is announced as the 1985 Booker Prize winning book, and hear Hulme’s immediate reaction just after on the phone to Hermione Lee.

Read more on Keri Hulme

Keri Hulme 1987
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How The Bone People changed the way we read

Striking, poetic and magnificent - or lamentable, unreadable, and indefensible? Discover the story behind The Bone People - one of the most divisive novels in Booker Prize history.

The Bone People
The Bone People

The Bone People

Winner of The Booker Prize 1985

Published by
Hodder & Stoughton
Keri Hulme’s Booker Prize-winning novel focuses on the mysterious relationships between three unorthodox outsiders of mixed Maori and European heritage