Eleanor Catton

Eleanor Catton (born 1985) is a New Zealand novelist and screenwriter. Born in Canada, Catton moved to New Zealand as a child and grew up in Christchurch. She completed a master's degree in creative writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters. Her award-winning debut novel, The Rehearsal, written as her Master's thesis, was published in 2008, and has been adapted into a 2016 film of the same name. Her second novel, The Luminaries, won the 2013 Booker Prize, making Catton the youngest author ever to win the prize (at age 28) and only the second New Zealander. It was subsequently adapted into a television miniseries, with Catton as screenwriter. In 2023, she was named on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list.

Early life Catton was born in Canada in 1985, where her father was a graduate student completing his doctorate at the University of Western Ontario on a Commonwealth scholarship. Back in Christchurch she attended Burnside High School, studied English at the University of Canterbury, and completed a Master's degree in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington. She is related to historian Bruce Catton.

Literary career The Rehearsal Catton's debut novel, The Rehearsal, was published in 2008 when she was 22. Written as her Master's thesis, it deals with reactions to an affair between a male teacher and a girl at his secondary school. The Rehearsal won the 2009 Betty Trask Award in the UK, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize and on the shortlist of the Guardian First Book Award. In 2011, she was the Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence at the University of Canterbury, and in 2012 a writer in residence at the Michael King Writers Centre in Auckland.

The Luminaries Catton at the Booker Prize ceremony in Guildhall, London, just before it was announced she had won the 2013 prize for The Luminaries. Catton's second novel The Luminaries was begun at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, when she was 25, and published in 2013. The novel is set on the goldfields of New Zealand in 1866. It was shortlisted for and subsequently won the 2013 Booker Prize, making Catton at the age of 28 the youngest author ever to win the Booker, beating more established names like Jhumpa Lahiri and Colm Tóibín. Catton was previously, at the age of 27, the youngest author ever to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

At 832 pages, The Luminaries was the longest work to win the prize in its 45-year history. In January 2014 it was announced that Catton would be awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature in May at Victoria University of Wellington, where she has studied. In the 2014 New Year Honours, she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature.

Screenwriting Catton made zombie movies with her friends as a teenager and participated in the 48Hours film challenge, but never studied screenwriting.

When Luminaries was adapted into a television miniseries Catton was screenwriter, an "unusual if not entirely unheard-of" arrangement. Catton wrote hundreds of drafts of the pilot episode, but in late 2015 BBC Two declined the series; she then shifted the focus to make the protagonist Anna Wetherell, a minor character in the book, and rewrote the series, which was commissioned by the BBC in mid-2016.

Catton also wrote the screenplay for the 2020 film version of Emma, adapted from Jane Austen's novel. She admitted she had never actually read the novel when approached to write the screenplay, but was familiar with more recent adaptations, including the film Clueless. It is a contemporary thriller about a group of young climate activists who call themselves Birnam Wood.

The novel was shortlisted for the 2023 Giller Prize. The New York Times named it one of the 100 Notable Books of 2023.

Politics

In an interview at the Jaipur Literary Festival in January 2015, Catton said that the governments of Australia, Canada and New Zealand were led by "neo-liberal, profit-obsessed, very shallow, very money-hungry politicians who do not care about culture... They care about short-term gains. They would destroy the planet in order to be able to have the life they want. I feel very angry with my Government".

Prime Minister John Key said he was disappointed at Catton's lack of respect for his Government and claimed she was aligned with the Green Party. The next day he said her views should not be given any more credence than those of the Peter "The Mad Butcher" Leitch or Richie McCaw.

In January 2015, on air RadioLive host Sean Plunket called Catton a traitor and an "ungrateful hua", a Māori slang word which some listeners mistook for "whore". The Taxpayers' Union also released a media statement showing Catton had received around $50,000 in Creative New Zealand support over her career, and argued that "if Ms Catton isn't thankful for the support by the New Zealand Government while she wrote The Luminaries, maybe she should use some of the substantial royalties to pay the money back".

In a blog post responding to the affair, Catton commented that her reported remarks were a condensed part of a larger interview, and she was puzzled why her comment at the Jaipur festival had generated such controversy: "I’ve been speaking freely to foreign journalists ever since I was first published overseas, and have criticised the Key government, neo-liberal values, and our culture of anti-intellectualism many times." She continued: In future interviews with foreign media, I will of course discuss the inflammatory, vicious, and patronising things that have been broadcast and published in New Zealand this week. I will of course discuss the frightening swiftness with which the powerful Right move to discredit and silence those who question them, and the culture of fear and hysteria that prevails. But I will hope for better, and demand it. Edwards quoted numerous other commentators who supported Catton's right to express her views, and said the controversy reflected the hollowness of public debate in New Zealand and of the media and politics. The couple later lived in Mount Eden while Catton taught creative writing part-time at the Manukau Institute of Technology. , the couple live in Cambridge, England, with their daughter. Recipients have included Amy Brown, Craig Cliff and Richard Meros.

Awards and honours

Literary achievement Year Title Award Category Result Ref. 2007 — Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing — Necropolis Sunday Star-Times Short Story Competition — 2009 The Rehearsal Betty Trask Prize and Awards Betty Trask Award Guardian First Book Award — Montana New Zealand Book Awards First Book Award Orange Prize — 2010 Amazon.ca First Novel Award — 2013 The Luminaries Booker Prize — Governor General's Awards English-language fiction 2014 New Zealand Post Book Awards Fiction Award People's Choice Award Walter Scott Prize — 2024 Birnam Wood International Dublin Literary Award — Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction —

Honors

2014 Honorary Doctor DLitt from Victoria University 2023 Granta Best of Young British Novelists

Works

Novels

Doubtful Sound (TBC)

Short stories Various short stories published in Best New Zealand Fiction Vol. 5 (2008); the Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories (2009), Granta issue 106 (Summer 2009) and issue 163 (Spring 2023, Best of Young British Novelists).

Films Emma. (2020). Directed by Autumn de Wilde.