New Zealand Writers

CORBALLIS, Tim

'...beautifully constructed, beautifully written, and often haunting'

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CORBALLIS, Tim (1971 -) is a fiction writer whose first novel Below was published in 2001. His fiction has also appeared in Sport, Landfall, The Picnic Virgin ed. by Emily Perkins and Spectacular Babies ed. by Anderson and Manhire.

Corballis was born in Montreal and lived there until 1977 when he came to live in New Zealand. He lived first in Auckland, and then Dunedin before settling in Wellington. He has attended both the University of Auckland and Victoria University of Wellington. It was at Victoria University that Corballis completed Bill Manhire’s Creative Writing Program , now The International Institute of Modern Letters. At the end of the course, and before the publication of Below Corballis won the Adam Award for his first novel.

Corballis describes his work in Below and in more recent projects as " a sort of landscape writing which moves beyond issues of national identity and into issues of personal identity. That is, in the relationship between a person and their place, in ways this effects connections with others, with ourselves, our histories, our memories – not as New Zealanders, but as people."

Many of the reviews of Below echo this description. Anna Jackson, writing for the Waikato Times, describes the novel as " a novel about space, and form, it is beautifully constructed, divided into just five long parts; like movements in a piece of music." Gavin McLean, in the Otago Daily Times, writes that "by evoking the fear and wonder of the underground… by drawing comparisons between its depths, twists and turns and the distances between what people say and do, Corballis has created a powerful and convincing suspense story that merits a wide readership."

Tim Corballis continues to live in Wellington, where, in addition to his writing, he works as a Library Assistant at the Alexander Turnbull Library.

(L.K.)

Updated Information

Measurement (2002) After the death of his younger sister, Antony travels south, missing the funeral and leaving behind his partner and child, and accompanied only by his well-thumbed copy of the philosophical text, Measurement. This beautifully written novel is a moving meditation on the intricate relationship between life and memory.

Tim Corballis has been awarded the 2005 Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers’ Residency. He will take up the eleven-month residency in August this year. While in Berlin, Corballis will undertake research and work on his fourth novel, comprising three thematically linked novellas, one of which is set in Europe and partly in Berlin.

The Fossil Pits (2005) was published by Victoria University Press. The novel tells the story of Walter Mantell's 1848 journey down the east coast of the South Island, to set aside reserves for Ngai Tahu within a large block purchased by the government. The novel is told in counterpoint with a modern woman's very different story of violence on a South Island farm.

Corballis also contributed one short story to the new anthology, Myth of the 21st Century (Reed, 2006).