Marilyn Duckworth

Marilyn Rose Duckworth (; born 10 November 1935) is a New Zealand novelist, poet and short story writer. Since her first novel was published at the age of 23 in 1959, she has published fifteen novels, one novella, a collection of short stories and a collection of poetry. Many of her novels feature women with complex lives and relationships. She has also written for television and radio. Over the course of her career she has received a number of prestigious awards including the top prize for fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Disorderly Conduct and a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in 2016.

Early life and family Duckworth was born in the suburb of Ōtāhuhu in Auckland, New Zealand. Her family spent the years between 1939 and 1947 in England. Her father Cyril Adcock was a psychologist and Esperantist, her mother was the poet Irene Adcock, and her sister was the poet Fleur Adcock. and during her life has had close personal friendships with other writers including Maurice Shadbolt, Maurice Duggan and James K. Baxter.

1980s and 1990s Duckworth did not publish another novel until Disorderly Conduct in 1984.

Honours, awards and nominations 1963: New Zealand Literary Fund Award for Achievement for A Barbarous Tongue 1996: Commonwealth Writers' Prize (shortlisted) for Leather Wings Fulbright Visiting Writer's Fellowship, United States (1987) Australia New Zealand Writers' Exchange Fellowship (1989) Victoria University of Wellington Writer's Fellowship (1990) Arts Council of New Zealand Scholarship in Letters (1993) Hawthornden Writing fellowship, Scotland (1994) Buddle Findlay Sargeson Writing Fellowship, Auckland (1996) Auckland University Literary Fellowship (1996) Ucross Foundation Residency, Wyoming, United States (1997) Millay Arts Centre Residency, New York State, United States (2001) New Zealand Society of Authors Foxton Fellowship (2004)

Selected works Novels A Gap in the Spectrum (1959) The Matchbox House (1960) A Barbarous Tongue (1963) Over the Fence Is Out (1969) Disorderly Conduct (1984) Married Alive (1985) Rest for the Wicked (1986) Pulling Faces (1987) A Message from Harpo (1989) Unlawful Entry (1992) Seeing Red (1993) Leather Wings (1995) Studmuffin (1997) Swallowing Diamonds (2003) Playing Friends (2007)

Other works Other Lovers' Children: Poems 1958–74 (1975) Explosions in the Sun (1989), a volume of short stories Fooling (1994), a novella Cherries on a Plate: New Zealand Writers Talk About Their Sisters (1996) (editor) Camping on the Faultline (2000), a memoir The Chiming Blue: New and Selected Poems (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2017)

Plays broadcast on radio A Gap in the Spectrum (adaptation of the novel, Radio New Zealand) (1972) A Barbarous Tongue (adaptation of the novel, Radio New Zealand) (1973) Home to Mother (Radio New Zealand) (1976) Feet First (Radio New Zealand) (1981)

Television scripts Close to Home scripts; 5 for Television One in 1975–1976