Catherine is the author of four highly acclaimed novels, all published by Victoria University Press. Her latest book The Wish Child won the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and has been a bestseller in New Zealand. The Wish Child was recently published in the United Kingdom by Chatto & Windus, with a United States publication to follow in 2018.

The Janet Frame Fiction Prize is awarded by the Janet Frame Literary Trust, founded by iconic New Zealand author Janet Frame in 1999. Since Frame’s death in 2004 the trust has awarded $115,000 in grants and donations to New Zealand writers.

In accepting the prize, Catherine said “Janet Frame was my first literary hero and still is my number one. Her books have always been very close to my heart, and so important to my development as a writer.”

“This is a wonderful acknowledgement of a writer who is producing some exceptional work. We are delighted by this news,” says Victoria University Press Publisher Fergus Barrowman.

Catherine’s next novel The Beat of the Pendulum, an exploration of human communication and memory, is due to be published in November by Victoria University Press.