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. Read full biography of Eleanor Catton →
Fiction is supposed to be immersive and supposed to be entertaining and narrative, so structures have to be buried a little bit. If they come... →
I believe really strongly in imitation, actually: I think it's the first place you need to go to if you're going to be able to understand how... →
I think it's more optimistic about human nature to acknowledge that people are the products of their time but then to see that they have moments... →
I think that, in principle, a workshop is such a beautiful idea - an environment in which writers who are collectively apprenticed to the craft of... →
I went to a state school in Christchurch, New Zealand, and then straight on to the University of Canterbury. But I worked part-time all the way... →
It seems pretentious to assume that we are not creatures of action. I think often it takes a situation of extreme absurdity, extreme action, to push... →
Often I listen to songs on repeat for days and days at a time. There's something hypnotic or meditative, and it mirrors the way that I am putting... →
One of the things I really like about Victorian novels is the close anatomisation of character. People's gestures and mannerisms and the quality... →
Teaching is a great complement to writing. It's very social and gets you out of your own head. It's also very optimistic. It renews itself... →
We throw at female artists this expectation that their work has to speak to the female experience. And if it doesn't, you're letting the side... →
What I feel is that true creation happens when you're making something out of nothing - like it's divine, you know. Creation is a completely... →
From the very beginning, I had an ambition for 'The Luminaries': a direction - but not a real idea.
I am a New Zealander, but I don't want to swallow New Zealand identity in one gulp.
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.