Kirsten Warner
Born1956 (age 67–68)
Hastings, New Zealand
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • poet
  • journalist
EducationMA (creative writing), AUT (2013)
Notable worksThe Sound of Glass Breaking (2018)
PartnerBernie Griffen
Children2
Website
kirstenwarnerauthor.wordpress.com

Kirsten Warner (born 1956) is a New Zealand novelist, poet and journalist. Her debut novel, The Sound of Breaking Glass (2018), won the Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction at the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Early life and family

Warner was born in Hastings, New Zealand, in 1956.[1] Her father, Gunter Warner, had moved to New Zealand from Germany in May 1939, as a 19-year-old Jewish refugee, and his parents and grandparents were murdered in the Holocaust. He became a schoolteacher in Auckland, and had three children including Warner.[2][3] Warner intended to write a book from the perspective of the child of a Holocaust survivor for many years; the book ultimately took her ten years to write and another eight years to get published.[4][5]

Career

For most of her life Warner has worked as a journalist; her articles have been published in The New Zealand Herald, The Listener and other publications.[6] In 1998 she had a short story, "If You Step On A Crack", published in the collection Penguin 25 New Fiction edited by Graham Beattie and Stephanie Johnson.[7] She won the Landfall Essay Competition in 2008.[8][9]

Her debut novel The Sound of Breaking Glass was published in 2018 by Mākaro Press. The novel is about the experiences of the child of a Holocaust survivor.[10] She had completed the novel, begun years earlier, as part of her Masters of Creative Writing at Auckland University of Technology.[11] It was awarded the Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction at the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, with the judges describing it as a "surreal, satirical and deeply moving story of multi-generational trauma".[12] Warner was unable to accept the award in person at the ceremony in May 2019 as she was recovering from a brain aneurysm. The award was accepted on her behalf by her partner and children.[13] By August of that year she was largely recovered and was able to attend the Going West writers' festival.[3]

Tina Shaw for Landfall described the novel as being "about the complex issues around survival"; "How do you cope with 'ordinary' life after having lived through the experience of the Holocaust; and how, as Second Generation, do you cope with the residual guilt and anger of that experience?"[14] Catherine Robertson, reviewing the book for The New Zealand Listener, described it as "an ambitious novel in both content and style", but concluded "it's well worth the extra effort because Warner manages to bring her many plot threads together in an ending that's both moving and satisfying".[15]

In 2018 Warner had a poetry chapbook of six poems, Mitochondrial Eve, published by Compound Press.[16] Paula Green positively reviewed the chapbook, saying "this hallucinogenic, rollercoaster, gut punch of book runs through me like fire".[17]

Warner is also a musician and performs with swamp blues band Bernie Griffen and The Thin Men.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 "Kirsten Warner". The Spinoff. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  2. ↑ Killgallon, Steve (30 June 2013). "A stumbling block in history". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  3. 1 2 Christian, Dionne (31 August 2019). "Going West Writers Fest first appearance for NZ author after life-threatening illness". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  4. ↑ "MitoQ Hero: Kirsten Warner". MitoQ. 18 November 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  5. ↑ Ward, Lynley (29 September 2019). "I won a literary prize while I was unconscious". New Zealand Women's Weekly. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  6. ↑ "Search: Kirsten Warner". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  7. ↑ Irving, Denise (30 May 1998). "Editors find plenty of NZ short story talent to celebrate". Waikato Times. ProQuest 313517868. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  8. ↑ "Landfall Essay Competition". Christchurch City Libraries. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  9. ↑ "Landfall Essay Competition". Otago University Press. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  10. ↑ "Shadows of secrets and silence". The New Zealand Herald. 24 November 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  11. ↑ "Creative Writing graduate wins award". Auckland University of Technology. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  12. ↑ "2019 Awards". New Zealand Book Awards. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  13. ↑ Christian, Dionne (14 May 2019). "Dame Fiona Kidman wins $53,000 Ockham book award fiction prize for This Mortal Boy". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  14. ↑ Shaw, Tina (1 May 2019). "Trapped Behind Walls of Glass". Landfall Review Online. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  15. ↑ Robertson, Catherine (28 December 2018). "Reality TV, trauma and green activism: The Sound of Breaking Glass reviewed". The New Zealand Listener. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020.
  16. ↑ Brownlee, Gayle (2 June 2020). "Mitochondrial Eve". New Zealand Poetry Society. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  17. ↑ Green, Paula (20 August 2019). "Poetry Shelf review: Kirsten Warner's Mitochondrial Eve". NZ Poetry Shelf. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
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