Eleanor Catton

Eleanor (Ellie) Catton
Eleanor Catton in 2012
Born	(1985-09-24) 24 September 1985 London, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	New Zealand
Notable works	The Luminaries
Notable awards	2013 Man Booker Prize
Website
eleanor-catton.com

Eleanor Catton MNZM (born 24 September 1985) is a Canadian-born New Zealand author. Her second novel, The Luminaries, won the 2013 Man Booker Prize. In January 2015, she created a short-lived media storm in New Zealand when she made comments in an interview in India in which she was critical of "neo-liberal, profit-obsessed, very shallow, very money-hungry politicians who do not care about culture."

Early life

Catton was born in Canada where her New Zealand father was a graduate student completing his doctorate at the University of Western Ontario. She grew up in Christchurch after her family returned to New Zealand when she was six years old; she spent a year living in Leeds where she attended Lawnswood School. She referred to this experience as "amazing, but a real eye opener" due to the toughness of the environment. She attended Burnside High School, studied English at the University of Canterbury, and completed a Master's degree in Creative Writing at The Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington. Catton is related to author Bruce Catton.

Career

Catton's 2008 debut novel, The Rehearsal, was written as her Master's thesis and deals with reactions to an affair between a male teacher and a girl at his secondary school. That year, she was awarded a fellowship to the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

In 2009 she was described by the British Daily Mail as "this year's golden girl of fiction". In 2011, she was the Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence at the University of Canterbury.

2013–present: The Luminaries and Man Booker Prize

Catton's second novel, The Luminaries, was published in 2013. The novel is set on the goldfields of New Zealand in 1866. It was shortlisted for and subsequently won the 2013 Man Booker Prize making Catton, at the age of 28, the youngest author ever to win the Booker. She was previously, at the age of 27, the youngest author ever to be shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

At 832 pages, The Luminaries is the longest work to win the prize in its 45-year history. The chair of the judges, Robert Macfarlane commented "It's a dazzling work. It's a luminous work. It is vast without being sprawling." Catton was presented with the prize by the Duchess of Cornwall on 15 October 2013 at Guildhall.

In November 2013 Catton was awarded the Canadian Governor General's Literary Award for fiction for The Luminaries. In January 2014 it was announced that Catton would be awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature in May at Victoria University of Wellington, where she has studied. On 18 March 2014 she was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature.

Cattongate

During an interview at the Jaipur Literary Festival in January 2015, Catton said in passing that the governments of Australia, Canada and New Zealand were countries led by

neo-liberal, profit-obsessed, very shallow, very money-hungry politicians who do not care about culture... They care about short-term gains. They would destroy the planet in order to be able to have the life they want. I feel very angry with my Government".

Prime Minister John Key said he was disappointed at Catton's lack of respect for his Government and claimed she was aligned with the Green Party. The next day he said her views should not be given any more credence than those of the Mad Butcher or Richie McCaw although both of them were offered a knighthood by John Key. McCaw turned the honour down.

On 16 December 2011 on air RadioLive host Sean Plunket called Catton a traitor and an "ungrateful hua". The Taxpayers' Union also released a media statement showing Catton had received around $50,000 in Creative New Zealand support over her career. Jordan Williams of the Taxpayers' Union argued that: "if Ms Catton isn't thankful for the support by the New Zealand Government while she wrote The Luminaries, maybe she should use some of the substantial royalties to pay the money back".

In a blog post responding to the affair, Catton commented that her reported remarks were a condensed part of a larger interview, and she was puzzled why her comment at the Jaipur festival had generated such controversy: "I’ve been speaking freely to foreign journalists ever since I was first published overseas, and have criticised the Key government, neo-liberal values, and our culture of anti-intellectualism many times." She goes on to say:

In future interviews with foreign media, I will of course discuss the inflammatory, vicious, and patronising things that have been broadcast and published in New Zealand this week. I will of course discuss the frightening swiftness with which the powerful Right move to discredit and silence those who question them, and the culture of fear and hysteria that prevails. But I will hope for better, and demand it.

The criticism of Catton caused a media storm, including the publication of numerous cartoons, and was described by one commentator as 'Cattongate'. In an opinion piece, Bryce Edwards quoted numerous commentators who supported Catton's right to express her views. He said the 'Catton controversy' reflected the hollowness of public debate in New Zealand, and of the media and politics, and is increasingly of concern to some academics, researchers, and journalists. He also said that for some people, the saga also relates to the more recent Dirty Politics scandal.

Personal life

Catton lives in Auckland with her husband, American expatriate author and poet Steven Toussaint, and teaches creative writing at the Manukau Institute of Technology. They married in January 2016.

Philanthropy

In 2014 she used her winnings from the NZ Post Book Award to establish the Horoeka/Ravenswood Grant. The grant offers a stipend to emerging writers with the aim of "the means and opportunity not to write, but to read, and to share what they learn through their reading with their colleagues in the arts". Recipients have included Amy Brown, Craig Cliff and Richard Meros.

Awards and honours

• 2007 Adam Award in Creative Writing for The Rehearsal
• 2007 Sunday Star-Times (NZ) Short Story Competition for Necropolis
• 2008 Glenn Schaeffer Fellowship at the Iowa Writers' Workshop
• 2008 Louis Johnson New Writers' Bursary
• 2009 Betty Trask Award for The Rehearsal
• 2009 New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church (Montana) Best First Book Award for Fiction for The Rehearsal
• 2009 Guardian First Book Award shortlist for The Rehearsal
• 2009 Orange Prize longlist for The Rehearsal
• 2010 Amazon.ca First Novel Award for The Rehearsal
• 2013 Man Booker Prize for The Luminaries
• 2013 Governor General's Award for English-language fiction for The Luminaries
• 2014 Walter Scott Prize shortlist for The Luminaries

Works

Novels

• The Rehearsal, a novel, first published Victoria University Press, Wellington, 2008. Published in Germany by Arche Verlag, Hamburg; translated by Barbara Schaden 2010 ISBN 978-3-7160-2632-8
• The Luminaries, Granta Books/Victoria University Press (2013) ISBN 978-1-84708-431-6

Other published works

• Short stories published in Best New Zealand Fiction Vol. 5 (2008), Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories (August 2009), and Granta (106, Summer 2009).

External links

• Official website
• Horoeka Reading grant
• Sunday Times, July 2009 (paywall)
• Excerpts from Eleanor Catton's Reading Journal, Turbine, 2007

Interviews

• "Interview with Eleanor Catton", The New Zealand Herald, September 2013
• Radio interview on The Bat Segundo Show, 71 minutes, 2013
• A collection of interviews with Catton, on the Radio New Zealand National website

Biographies

• Profile of Catton on the New Zealand Book Council website
• Catton's author profile on the Granta website
• Catton's author profile on the Victoria University Press website