Neale, Emma

IN BRIEF

Emma Neale is a poet and prose writer, whose first novel Night Swimming was published in 1998, followed by her first collection of poetry Sleeve Notes in 1999. Her writing has been featured extensively in journals and anthologies, and in 2000 Neale won the Todd New Writers’ Bursary. Neale’s novel Little Moon (2001) was described by John McCrystal as, ‘flawlessly written, deploying a wealth of descriptive imagery’. Neale won first place in the 2008 Takahe Poetry Competition with her poem 'Well', and was the inaugural recipient of the NZSA Janet Frame Memorial Award for Literature in 2008.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Neale, Emma (1969 - ) is a poet and prose writer whose first novel, Night Swimming (1998) was swiftly followed by a collection of poetry, Sleeve Notes (1999).

Sally Sutton writes in New Zealand Books that ‘Night Swimming is a gentle, agreeably unpretentious first novel about a friendship that has not been permitted to run its natural course.’ Pam Henson describes the novel as a ‘careful dissection of experience into observation, exploration and response.’ ‘Read the first chapter...’ writes Graham Beattie, ‘and you will be unable to put the book down."

In New Zealand Books, Bernadette Hall praises Sleeve Notes for ‘the integrity, the tenderness, the easy access to the body, the wide perspective...It's all very human, with the special kind of soundness that delights again and again.’

In 2000 Neale won the Todd New Writers Bursary.

Neale's novels include Little Moon (2001), described by John McCrystal in the Evening Post as ‘flawlessly written, deploying a wealth of descriptive imagery’, Double Take (2003), a novel that explores the push for creativity and the dynamics of family, and Relative Strangers, in which 'Neale reminds all mothers of what matters most: motherhood.' (Louise Wareham, The Listener, May 27-June 2 2006)

Neale edited Creative Juices (2001), the work from the creative writing programmes as Victoria and Auckland Universities, and from the fiction writing course at Timaru's Aoraki Polytechnic. Neale was also selecting editor for the annual online anthology Best New Zealand Poems 2004, and for Swings and Roundabouts (Godwit, 2008), a collection of poetry on the theme of parenthood, illustrated with photographs of babies and young children.

Neale's poetry collection How To Make a Million (2002) explores the tricks, turns and seductions of language itself. Her poetry was also included in the collection Double Jointed (2003), edited by Jenny Powell-Chalmers.

Spark (Steele Roberts, 2008) is a collection of poetry written during Neale's first four years as a mother. 'Many will connect with the paradoxically unique universals expressed: the everyday, yet utterly individual, experience of motherhood,' said Kim Worthington in The Listener on June 21-27 2008. Swings and Roundabouts: Poems on Parenthood, edited with an introduction by Emma Neale was published by Vintage: Random House in 2008.

Neale won first place in the 2008 Takahe Poetry Competition with her poem 'Well'. She was also the inaugural recipient of the NZSA Janet Frame Memorial Award for Literature in 2008. She has had writing published in North America in Bat City Review and The Harvard Review.

Last updated: 27/01/10

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Media links and clips

• Interview with Emma Neale published in The Listener, April 26-May 2 2008 Vol 213
• Emma Neale on the nzepc site
• Emma Neale’s Steele Roberts profile
• Emma Neale’s Random House profile
• Listener review of Emma Neale’s Relative Srangers

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