Dame Fiona Kidman Wins 2011 PM’s Award

Dame Fiona Kidman Wins the 2011 Prime Minister’s Award
Dame Fiona Kidman was presented with the Prime Minister’s Award for her significant contribution to New Zealand literature, at Premier House in Wellington last night. Kidman has played an active part in teaching, mentoring and promoting writing causes in New Zealand. She began her career as a journalist, radio producer, and script writer for radio, film and television, but now works wholly as a writer. She has won numerous awards over the years, including the Ngaio Marsh Award for Television Writing (1971), the Mobil Short Story Award, the 1988 New Zealand Book Award for Fiction for The Book of Secrets and was finalist for the Deutz Medal for Fiction at the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards for The Captive Wife, which was also joint winner of the Reader’s Choice Award. She has also been awarded the OBE, in 1998 was made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature, and from the French government was awarded in 2009 the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Artes et des Lettres(Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) and the Légion d’Honneur (French Legion of Honour).
		Upon acceptance of her award Kidman paid tribute to fellow authors Marilyn Duckworth, Joy Cowley and Jean Watson saying, “I was inspired by the fact that you were young mothers like me and I’m grateful to you for writing the books you wrote then, because you helped me make sense of the choices I’d made.” To date, Kidman has published twenty-six literary works, over sixty scripts for radio and television and two nonfiction titles, as well as edited four anthologies. Her latest collection of short stories published by Random House in June, entitled The Trouble with Fire, explores how we are all touched and sometimes scarred by the flames of emotion. Upon hearing of Kidman’s award Karen Ferns, Managing Director of Random House New Zealand said, “Random House treasures our long association with Fiona Kidman whose extensive and groundbreaking contribution to New Zealand cultural life is recognised with this well deserved and prestigious award.” The Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement were established in 2003.
Every year, New Zealanders are invited to nominate their choice of an outstanding writer who has made a significant contribution to New Zealand literature in the genres of non-fiction, poetry and fiction. The nominations are assessed by an expert literary panel and recommendations forwarded to Creative New Zealand for approval. This year’s selection panel was Stephen Stratford, David Eggleton and Rachael King.