35 Facts About Patricia Grace

Patricia Grace began writing as a young adult, while working as a teacher.

Since becoming a full-time writer in the 1980s, Grace has written seven novels, seven short-story collections, a non-fiction biography and an autobiography.

Patricia Grace's works explore Maori life and culture, including the impact of Pakeha and other cultures on Maori, with use of the Maori language throughout.

Patricia Grace has written a number of children's books, seeking to write books in which Maori children can see their own lives.

Patricia Grace is a pioneering and influential figure in New Zealand literature, and over her career has won a number of awards, including the Kiriyama Prize, the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, two honorary doctorates of literature, a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement, and an Icon Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand for extraordinary lifetime achievement.

Patricia Grace's books have twice won the top award for fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards.

Patricia Grace was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007, for services to literature.

Patricia Grace is of Ngati Toa, Ngati Raukawa and Te Ati Awa descent.

Patricia Grace was born on 17 August 1937 in Wellington, New Zealand.

Patricia Grace's father was Maori and her mother was European and Irish Catholic.

Patricia Grace grew up in the suburb of Melrose, where her father had built the family home, and spent time with her father's family at Hongoeka, on their ancestral land.

Patricia Grace has said that as a child she did not learn to speak Maori, because it was only spoken at formal events such as tangi.

Patricia Grace began to make efforts to learn as an adult, but found it difficult.

Patricia Grace subsequently attended St Mary's College, where she excelled at basketball, and subsequently Wellington Teachers' Training College.

Patricia Grace began writing at age 25, while working full-time as a teacher in North Auckland.

Patricia Grace had early stories published in the New Zealand Listener.

Patricia Grace's first published book, Waiariki, was the first collection of short stories to be published by a female Maori writer, and its ten stories show the diversity of Maori life and culture.

In 1985, Patricia Grace received a writing fellowship at Victoria University of Wellington, which enabled her to give up teaching, become a full-time writer, and complete the novel Potiki, which became her most successful novel.

Patricia Grace intentionally did not include a glossary for Maori language terms in the book or italicise these terms, on the basis that she "didn't want the Maori language to be treated as a foreign language in its own country".

The novel was viewed by some critics as political; John Beston, writing for Landfall, suggested that "having sought previously to soothe her Pakeha readers and to suppress her anger, [Patricia Grace] is ready to charge them, not with past and irremediable injustices, but with continuing injustices".

Patricia Grace said that she was endeavouring to write about "ordinary lives of ordinary people" and did not expect it to be seen as political.

Patricia Grace was active in the promotion of Maori arts during the 1980s.

Elspeth Sandys observed in 2001 that the release of a new novel by Patricia Grace was "one of the more significant events in [New Zealand's] literary calendar".

Patricia Grace described the experience of writing a book about "men and especially men at war" as a "wonderful challenge".

Patricia Grace was approached around this time by the family of Ned Nathan, a Maori Battalion soldier who was wounded in Crete, and his wife Katina, a Cretan woman who nursed him back to health, and asked to write the story of their relationship.

Patricia Grace continues to be recognised for her "pioneering role" in New Zealand literature.

Patricia Grace-Smith was previously married to Patricia Grace's son, and had attended the launch of the novel 19 years earlier at Takapuwahia Marae.

In 2021, Patricia Grace was the chief judge for the Sargeson Prize, New Zealand's most valuable short-story prize.

In 2024, a new collection of short stories by Patricia Grace was published, titled Bird Child and Other Stories.

Patricia Grace has won awards for her writing since the outset of her career, with her first book, Waiariki, receiving the Hubert Church Memorial Award for Best First Book of Fiction, awarded by PEN NZ.

In 2005 Patricia Grace received an Icon Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, an award bestowed on twenty of New Zealand's most significant living artists for extraordinary lifetime achievement.

Patricia Grace was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature, in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours.

In 2008, Patricia Grace was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

Patricia Grace received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the World Indigenous Nations University in 2016, conferred at Te Wananga o Raukawa, Otaki, for her literary accomplishments and her writing around Maori themes.

Patricia Grace was married to children's author Kerehi Waiariki Patricia Grace, having met him at teachers' college.