Keri Hulme, New Zealand’s first Booker prize-winning writer, dies aged 74

Acclaimed author and poet Keri Hulme, who was the first New Zealander to win the Booker prize, has died aged 74.

The reclusive writer, who won the prestigious literary prize in 1985 for her first novel The Bone People, died on Monday at her home in Waimate in New Zealand’s South Island.

Born in Christchurch in 1947 to a mother of Māori and Scottish ancestry and a father of English descent, Hulme was the eldest of six children.

The seeds for her writing often came to her in dreams, and explored themes of identity and isolation. The protagonist in The Bone People, a solitary part-Māori artist named Kerewin Holmes, was “a clear stand-in for the author”, wrote Sam Jordison in the Guardian.

Described as “a unique example of Māori magical realism”, The Bone People took Hulme 12 years to write, but New Zealand publishers either rejected it outright or demanded major edits. Hulme declared she would rather have the book “embalmed in Perspex” than reworked. In 1984 it was picked up by Spiral, a small feminist press, which gave it an initial print run of 2,000 copies. It has since sold more than a million copies and won the Pegasus prize for literature as well as the Booker.

In 1985, Hulme was so unconvinced of her chances of winning the Booker prize she didn’t attend the awards ceremony in London. When she was notified of her win by telephone during the international broadcast, she responded: “You are pulling my leg aren’t you … Bloody hell – it’s totally unbelievable.”

The first New Zealander to win the @TheBookerPrizes Keri Hulme won the award in 1985 for 'The Bone People'. I love the bit here during the ceremony when they ring her on the phone to tell her and she says, "Bloody hell!" https://t.co/T3Te8pD27a#KeriHulme#TheBonePeople

— Kiran Dass (@SteelyDass) December 28, 2021

Speaking to New Zealand news website Stuff, Hulme’s nephew Matthew Salmons said his aunt never wanted to be perceived as a “​​literary giant”.

“It was never about fame for her, she’s always been a storyteller. It was never about the glitz and glam, she just had stories to share.

“She gave us as a family the greatest gift of all, which would be reconnecting us with our Whakapapa Māori and reigniting that passion for our history, our people that had been lost over a couple of generations.”

Hulme lived for many years in Ōkārito, a settlement on the West Coast of New Zealand, where she dedicated herself to catching whitebait, painting and writing. She produced collections of poetry, short stories and a novella.