23 Facts About Fiona Kidman

Fiona Kidman grew up in Northland, and worked as a librarian and a freelance journalist early in her career.

Fiona Kidman began writing novels in the late 1970s, with her works often featuring young women subverting society's expectations, inspired by her involvement in the women's liberation movement.

Fiona Kidman's works explore women's lives and issues of social justice, and often feature historical settings.

Fiona Kidman is an influential figure in New Zealand literature and has been active in New Zealand's literary community, including by serving as the president of the New Zealand Society of Authors and the New Zealand Book Council and as a creative writing tutor.

Fiona Kidman has won a number of prestigious awards over the course of her career, including a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement and the top award for fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards on two occasions.

Fiona Kidman was born in Hawera, New Zealand, on 26 March 1940.

Fiona Kidman was the only child of Flora and Hugh Eakin, and as a newborn baby she was briefly hospitalised with a milk allergy.

Fiona Kidman attended Kerikeri Primary School followed by Northland College, where she has said she won the school English prize when she was aged 13.

Fiona Kidman attended Waipu District High School for two years.

Fiona Kidman married Ian Kidman in 1960, and the couple had two children.

Fiona Kidman was awarded an MNZM for his service working with landmine victims in Cambodia, and died in 2017.

Fiona Kidman began working as a freelance journalist in the 1960s, and was mentored by Bruce Mason and William Austin in theatre and radio theatre.

Fiona Kidman is deeply interested in issues of social justice.

Fiona Kidman's tenth novel, All Day at the Movies, is a family saga focussed on the life of women and changes in social attitudes across 55 years in New Zealand.

Fiona Kidman's poems are often autobiographical in nature and feature feminist themes.

Fiona Kidman has published two volumes of her memoirs: At the End of Darwin Road and Beside the Dark Pool.

Fiona Kidman's works have been translated into several languages including French, German, Italian and Romanian.

Fiona Kidman is active in the literary community, serving as the first secretary of the New Zealand Book Council in 1972, the National President of the New Zealand Society of Authors from 1981 to 1983, and the President of the New Zealand Book Council from 1992 to 1995.

Fiona Kidman has described the New Zealand Book Council as "a concept which held such a profound vision for books in our lives".

In 1988, she founded and ran the Fiona Kidman Creative Writing School, which is part of Whitireia Community Polytechnic.

Fiona Kidman is one of fifteen Fellows of the Academy of New Zealand Literature, an invitation extended to writers with "an important body of work and distinguished career".

Fiona Kidman has received awards and honours since the beginning of her career, including the Ngaio Marsh Award for a television play in 1971, the New Outlook Short Story Award in 1985, a 1988 Victoria University writing fellowship, an Arts Council Award for Achievement in 1988, and the Scholarship in Letters on a number of occasions.

Fiona Kidman was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 1998 New Year Honours.