New Zealand Writers

NEALE, Emma

All very human, with the special kind of soundness that delights again and again.

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." Writing of Sleeve Notes in New Zealand Books Bernadette Hall praises "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 novel Little Moon (2001) was described by John McCrystal in the Evening Post as "flawlessly written, deploying a wealth of descriptive imagery". Neale has recently 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's latest work is How To Make a Million (2002) a collection of poetry in which she explores the tricks, turns and seductions of language itself.

(KC.)

Updated Information

Double Take (2003) is a novel that explores the push for creativity and the dynamics of family. The Marshall twins seem to be ideal siblings, yet, when you are so akin to someone else - who are you really?

Double Jointed by Jenny Powell-Chalmers (2003) features poetry by the author with Rob Allan, Martha Morseth, John Allison, Larry Matthews, Emma Neale, John Dolan, Peter Olds, Claire Beynon, Trevor Reeves and James Norcliffe.

Relative Strangers was published by Random House in May 2006.

Spark was published by Steele Roberts in 2008.