Emily Perkins

Lydia Wevers (Victoria University of Wellington)
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Born in Christchurch in 1970, Emily Perkins has pursued her writing career in both London and New Zealand. Her first book

Not her real name and other stories

(1996) was jointly published by Victoria University Press and Picador (UK). It was shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Award and won the Best First Book (Fiction) Award; it subsequently won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in the UK and was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Since then Perkins has published two novels and become known as a writer to watch.

Perkins's fiction inhabits a Gen-X world. Her characters are media and IT-savvy; they do drugs, alcohol and casual sex; their relationships are fraught and shifting; their lives are cheap and mobile. Perkins's first collection of stories Not her real name and other

1320 words

Citation: Wevers, Lydia. "Emily Perkins". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 November 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11854, accessed 19 March 2024.]

11854 Emily Perkins 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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