Lay, Graeme
IN BRIEF
Graeme Lay is an editor and a prolific writer of stories, magazine articles, television plays, fiction and non-fiction books. He was books editor of North and South magazine from 1990-99. He has published several novels and collections of short stories, and edited many short story anthologies including the popular Short Short Stories series. In 1999 and 2002 he was a finalist in the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards for his young adult novels.
FROM THE oxford companion TO new zealand literature
Lay, Graeme (1944 – ), fiction writer and editor, was born in Foxton, spent the formative years of his childhood in Taranaki, graduated from Victoria University of Wellington, became a secondary-school teacher and then settled on Auckland’s North Shore in 1972.
A prolific writer of stories and magazine articles, television plays and fiction and non-fiction books, he became books editor of North and South magazine in 1992. He has published two novels, The Mentor (1978) and The Fools on the Hill (1988), two collections of short stories, Dear Mr Cairney (1985) and Motu Tapu ( 1990), and edited four short story anthologies, Metro Fiction (1987), the popularly successful 100 New Zealand Short Short Stories (1997), Another 100 New Zealand Short Short Stories (1998), and The Third Century (1999).
He has moved the focus of recent work to non-fiction, with Passages: Journeys in Polynesia (1993), Pacific New Zealand (1996) and, in the planned ‘Pacific Pride’ series, his working titles are The Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. These books and his many magazine features (often accompanied by his own colour photographs) on the islands of the South Pacific aim to modernise perceptions of an area that has often been projected as distant and exotic, and to place New Zealand intimately within a South Pacific context.
Author entry from The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature,
edited by Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie (1998).
Additional Information
Graeme Lay received the Lilian Ida Smith Award in 1988. In 1998, he was named Reviewer of the Year at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.
His young adult novel, Leaving One-foot Island ( 1998), was a finalist for the 1999 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. The work was also recognized on the 2002 Storylines Notable Senior Fiction List.
In its sequel, Return to One-foot Island (2001), 16-year-old Tuaine Takamoa returns to her home in the Cook Islands. She meets and falls in love with a young Australian boy visiting the island. Lay is planning a third and final book in the One-foot Island series.
Another title for young adults, The Wave Rider (2000) is set in a seaside town with the world of surfing as its backdrop.
Lay has edited three anthologies in the popular Short Short Stories series, which collect stories of 500 words or fewer entered in a series of competitions. In a departure from the previous format, the fifth volume in the series, 50 Short Short Stories by Young New Zealanders (2001) features work by writers aged 18 or under. Lay selected the stories and edited the volume.
Lay also edited Boys Own Stories (2001), a collection of short stories by New Zealand men.
The Globetrotter Guide to New Zealand (2001) is a guide aimed at the independent traveller, and was rated by the Independent on Sunday as one of the top New Zealand travel guides.
Another non-fiction title, Pacific Feasts and Festivals (2002) celebrates the cultural diversity of New Zealands Pacific Island communities. It features text by Lay and photographs by Glenn Jowitt.
From 1990 - 1999 Lay was Books Editor for North and South. He is secretary of the Frank Sargeson Trust.
Return to One Foot Island (2002), was a finalist in the Senior Fiction category for the 2002 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards.
His latest work for adults is a collection of short stories The Town on The Edge of The World (2002).
An Affair of the Heart: A Celebration of Frank Sargeson's Centenary edited by Graeme Lay and Stephen Stratford was published in 2003. In this unique literary anthology many of New Zealand's leading writers and poets give us their memories of meetings with Sargeson, accounts of his encouragement and support, and writings in his honour.
Lay's latest book for young adults is The Pearl of One Foot Island (Penguin Books, 2004), the dramatic conclusion to his captivating trilogy about Tuaine
Takamoa, a beautiful and sensitive young woman growing up in the Cook Islands.
Golden Weather: North Shore Writers Past and Present (Cape Catley Ltd, 2004) is a collection edited by Graeme Lay and Jack Ross. For dipping into and for savouring, Golden Weather presents a roll call of writers celebrating the North Shore including; James K Baxter, Michael King, Frank Sargeson, Janet Frame, Robin Hyde, C K Stead, Kevin Ireland and Hone Tuwhare.
Graeme Lay has been recently announced as the third judge for the inaugural 2010 NZSA/Pindar Publishing Prize.
Media links and clips
- There is a bibliography in the Auckland University Library's New Zealand Literature File.
- Interviews with NZ Children's Authors at the Christchurch City Library website
- Awa Press
- Graeme Lay NZETC
- Jam Radio
