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.
Keri Hulme
Keri Hulme was a New Zealand author and poet, principally known for her first novel, The Bone People, which won the 1985 Booker Prize. 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.
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Who was the first New Zealander to win the Booker Prize?
Keri Hulme was the first New Zealander to win the Booker Prize for her debut novel, ‘The Bone People’, in 1985.
She is one of only two New Zealanders to win the Booker Prize, the second being Eleanor Catton in 2014 for ‘The Luminaries’.
Three other New Zealanders have been nominated for the Booker Prize, Patricia Grace in 2001 for ‘Dogside Story’ and Lloyd Jones in 2007 for ‘Mister Pip’ and Anna Smaill in 2015 for ‘The Chimes’.
Founder members of the Spiral Collective, New Zealand publishers of The Bone People, receiving the £15,000 cheque and leather bound copy of the book on behalf of Keri Hulme, at the 1985 Booker Prize awards ceremony.
Courtesy Oxford Brookes Archive
Winner The Booker Prize 1985
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- Keri Hulme: winner of the 1985 Booker Prize
- 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.
