Lloyd Jones (New Zealand author)

Not to be confused with Lloyd Jones (Welsh writer).
Lloyd Jones
Jones in 2012
Jones in 2012
BornLloyd David Jones
(1955-03-23) 23 March 1955 (age 69)
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
OccupationWriter
Notable worksMister Pip
Children3
RelativesBob Jones (brother)
Sam Duckor-Jones (son)

Lloyd David Jones (born 23 March 1955) is a New Zealand author. His novel Mister Pip (2006) won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Early life, education and family[edit]

Jones was born in Lower Hutt in 1955, and attended Hutt Valley High School and Victoria University of Wellington. Despite fulfilling the requirements of a political science degree, Jones was unable to graduate from university at the time due to library fines owing; he eventually completed his course of study and graduated in 2007.[1][2] He was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Victoria University in May 2009.[3]

Jones's older brother is property investor and former politician Sir Bob Jones.[4] He also has three older sisters.[5]

Jones' partner is Australian writer Carrie Tiffany.[1] He has two sons and a daughter.[5] One of his sons, Avi Duckor-Jones, was the winner of the first season of reality television show Survivor NZ in 2017.[6] His other son, Sam Duckor-Jones, is an artist and poet.[6][7]

Literary career[edit]

After leaving university and spending time travelling overseas, Jones became a sports reporter at The Evening Post, and began writing fiction.[1][5] His first novel, Gilmore's Dairy (1985), was a satirical novel about a young man growing up in a small New Zealand town, and was followed by Splinter (1988), a novel set in Lower Hutt with two primary narratives (one about an early immigrant and the other about a magazine editor). Like his later work, these two early novels blended suburban realism, black comedy and originality.[8]

In 1988, Jones was the recipient of the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship.[9] In 1991 he published a short fiction collection, Swimming for Australia (1991), which was shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Award for Fiction.[8] In 1994 he curated an exhibition which illustrated the concept of Saturday in New Zealand life. The work was a collaboration with photographer Bruce Foster and held at the National Library in Wellington. The work was published as The Last Saturday and included historical photographs, contemporary photographs by Foster and an essay by Jones.[8]

In May 2003, a theatrical adaptation of Jones' novel The Book of Fame was presented at Wellington's Downstage Theatre.[10] It was adapted for the stage by Carl Nixon, New Zealand novelist and playwright.

In May 2007, Jones won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Overall Best Book Award for his novel Mister Pip. The novel is set during the Bougainville Civil War of the early 1990s in Papua New Guinea.[11] The book was also short-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2007.[12]

Jones was the 2007 recipient of the Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers' Residency.[13]

Jones was inspired to investigate his family history by the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, and published a memoir, A History of Silence, in 2013.[14]

In 2015 Jones spent a year in Australia as a resident writer at the JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at the University of Adelaide.[1] He subsequently spent 2016–2017 in Berlin as a recipient of a DAAD scholarship.[1]

Awards and honours[edit]

Selected works[edit]

  • Gilmore's Dairy (1985)
  • Splinter (1988)
  • Swimming to Australia, and Other Stories (1991)
  • Biografi: An Albanian Quest (1993) – a New York Times Notable Book.[16]
  • This House Has Three Walls (1997)
  • Choo Woo (1998)
  • Book of Fame (2000)
  • Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance (2002)
  • Napoleon and the Chicken Farmer (2003)
  • Everything You Need to Know about the World by Simon Eliot, illustrated by Timon Maxey (Four Winds Press, 2004); US title, Everything You Need to Know About the World (2007)
  • Paint Your Wife (2004)
  • Mister Pip (2006)
  • Hand Me Down World (2010)
  • The Man in the Shed (2011)
  • A History of Silence: A memoir (Auckland: Penguin, 2013)
  • The Cage (2018)
  • The Fish (2022)

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Manson, Bess (27 January 2018). "Lloyd Jones' latest book born out of human suffering". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  2. ^ "Lloyd David Jones - Roll of Graduates". Victoria University of Wellington - Te Herenga Waka. 17 September 2020. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  3. ^ [1] Archived March 30, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Bob and Lloyd Jones". Stuff.co.nz. 31 January 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  5. ^ a b c Matthews, Philip (24 August 2013). "Lloyd Jones talks about family memoir". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  6. ^ a b Mealing, Fleur (6 July 2017). "Survivor winner Avi had to calm his nerves with a couple of wines". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  7. ^ "Poet Sam Duckor-Jones finds himself inspired by train trips". RNZ. 2021-06-13. Retrieved 2022-04-09.
  8. ^ a b c Robinson, Roger (2006). "Jones, Lloyd". In Robinson, Roger; Wattie, Nelson (eds.). The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-1917-3519-6. OCLC 865265749. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  9. ^ "Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship". The Arts Foundation. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  10. ^ Dixon, Greg. "AK03: The Book of Fame". New Zealand Herald. NZME. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  11. ^ "NZ author wins prestigious prize". One News. 28 May 2007. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  12. ^ "The Man Booker Prize 2007". The Booker Prizes. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  13. ^ "Entertainment news, gossip & music, movie & book reviews on Stuff.co.nz". Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
  14. ^ "A History of Silence: A Memoir (NZ Ed)". Penguin NZ. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  15. ^ a b c d "Lloyd Jones". Read NZ. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  16. ^ a b c d e f "Lloyd Jones". The Arts Foundation. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  17. ^ "LIANZA Russell Clark Award". Christchurch City Libraries. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  18. ^ "2004 Awards". New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. Wellington, New Zealand: Booksellers New Zealand. 28 September 2011. OCLC 182896192. Archived from the original on 2012-05-28. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  19. ^ "New Zealand Post Book of the Year". Christchurch, New Zealand: Christchurch City Libraries. 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  20. ^ "Commonwealth Writers' Prize Regional Winners 1987-2007" (PDF). Commonwealth Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 October 2007.
  21. ^ "Lloyd Jones Wins Kiriyama Prize in Fiction". Poets & Writers. 4 February 2008. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  22. ^ "Mr Pip championed by British equivalent of Oprah's book club". NZ Herald. 29 December 2007. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  23. ^ "Previous winners". Creative New Zealand. Retrieved October 24, 2013.

External links[edit]

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