Motions — Man Booker Prize 2013—Eleanor Catton

I seek leave to move a motion without notice in recognition of New Zealand author Eleanor Catton for winning the Man Booker Prize.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that course of action being taken? There appears to be none.

I move, That this House congratulate Eleanor Catton on winning the Man Booker Prize. This is a hugely significant achievement on the international stage for a New Zealander. The Man Booker Prize is literature’s most sought-after prize. It is made even more extraordinary by the fact that Eleanor Catton, at 28 years of age, is the youngest ever author to receive the prize. In fact, she was born in the same year that the last and only other New Zealand author, Kēri Hulme, won the Man Booker Prize in 1985 with The Bone People. Today’s win will be a tremendous boost for young New Zealanders in the arts. The judging panel said that Eleanor Catton’s winning novel, The Luminaries, at 832 pages, “requires a huge investment of time from the reader but the dividends it offers are astronomical”.

New Zealand generally celebrates our sporting successes on the international stage with enormous vigour. We should be celebrating this success today with equal enthusiasm, as it is a truly remarkable achievement. It also comes at the same time that young Auckland musician Lorde currently holds the No. 1 US chart spot for her song “Royals” at just 16 years of age. It is exciting and inspiring that our ambassadors in the arts and culture who right now hold the attention of the world are fiercely intelligent and ferociously talented young women. Their successes are testament to their skills and hard work, and an inspiration for all New Zealanders.

I rise on behalf of the Labour Opposition to support the motion. Today a young Kiwi has made history, and we are all so proud of her for that. I join the Prime Minister, parties from across the House, and Kiwis everywhere in congratulating young Kiwi author Eleanor Catton on winning literature’s most prestigious Man Booker Prize. From the very beginning of what was originally called the Booker Prize there was just one criterion. The prize would be for the best novel, in the opinion of the judges. Forty-two years later that is still a key sentence in the rules, and that is exactly what Eleanor Catton has produced.

Who better to sum up Eleanor’s wonderful work than the judges who saw fit to bestow upon her this fantastic prize? They not only praised the work as a whole but saw a maturity in the text that belied the author’s age, stating: “you read every sentence and you are astonished by its knowledge and its poise.” They added that it was “a dazzling work”, “luminous” and “vast”.

Eleanor now joins a list of the world’s greatest writers that includes names such as Iris Murdoch, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Kingsley Amis, and, of course, our own Kēri Hulme. There are some wonderful parallels in two other Booker Prize winners. Eleanor’s win comes 28 years after New Zealand’s Kēri Hulme won the same prize for the The Bone People in 1985, the year Eleanor was born. Kēri Hulme is, of course, a proud West Coaster, and The Luminaries is set in Hokitika. [Interruption] Yes, Damien—Hokitika, a fact our own MP for West Coast - Tasman, Damien O’Connor, was quick to jump on. That is indicative of what prizes do for authors and also for their home, their places that inspire their work.

But Eleanor Catton has been quick to point out what it is that New Zealand has given her too. She is a graduate of the International Institute of Modern Letters at our own Victoria University. This is the programme that Bill Manhire established, which has produced a number of great New Zealand writers, including Emily Perkins, Barbara Anderson, Laurence Fearnley, and, of course, Elizabeth Knox. The Luminaries is also published by Victoria University Press, and today we should also acknowledge Fergus Barrowman, who is the publisher at Victoria University Press.

Today Eleanor has become a wonderful young ambassador for New Zealand, an inspiration to young writers, and a source of enormous pride. We congratulate her warmly.

I rise to support the motion on behalf of the Green Party. This is wonderful news—once again a woman from Aotearoa New Zealand has won the Man Booker Prize, and at 28 years of age. There are 832 pages of vibrant, intricate, and experimental writing in The Luminaries, which, like Kēri Hulme’s magnificent opus The Bone People, extends the definition of creative literature and takes the prize. Although she was born in Canada, Eleanor Catton came to New Zealand when she was 6 years old and is rightly counted as a Kiwi. I am really looking forward to reading this. I was particularly captivated by the New Zealand Herald’s description of the plot: “a great, big, glorious story of shipwrecks and swindlers, opium addicts and prospectors, secret caches of gold stitched into gowns, fate and fortune, greed, hope, and desperation.”—just like Parliament, really, only based in Hokitika.

The Green Party salutes this young writer for winning what is possibly the most prestigious literary prize in the world and adding her name to the list of writers from Katherine Mansfield onwards who have taken Europe by storm. This book must have been a marathon to write, so Eleanor should be recognised as both an athlete and a writer. Once again a writer has written about our history and identity in a manner that has universal meaning, mystery, and delight. Congratulations, Eleanor Catton, and may every Kiwi author be inspired by her success.

It should have been this case for the America’s Cup, but it did not happen. Congratulations to Eleanor Catton for winning the most prestigious literary award in the world and becoming the youngest winner in the history of the Man Booker Prize. We join in the adulatory comments of other speakers in this House. It was said once that the trouble with being a publisher is that too many people with half a mind to write a book do so, which explains half the political autobiographies we read around the world. This is not the case with The Luminaries, Eleanor’s second novel—

💬 Hon Bill English: We’re waiting for yours.

No, when I write a book, it will be a best seller. If you are kind to me, I will leave out the part about you, which will double its publication if I let it go—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! Do not bring the Speaker into the debate.

This is not the case with The Luminaries. Eleanor’s second novel was described by the judges as a dazzling piece of work. Eleanor is an inspiration to all Kiwi writers. Let us hope we see more young Kiwis aspire to her astonishing success.

On behalf of United Future I want to join with other speakers in congratulating Eleanor Catton on winning the Man Booker Prize for The Luminaries. Her history has been rehearsed. She is one of the youngest winners, born the year the last New Zealand author achieved this significance. The Luminaries is a phenomenal piece of work at 832 pages long. If you heard Eleanor’s acceptance address earlier today, you would have got a sense of the flow of the novel from just the very way in which she spoke and described some of the influences that led her to write about gold and pounamu, about the West Coast, and about the particular situation of the South Island of New Zealand.

The great tribute to her is that a very specific regional novel comes out as the best in the world. When you look at the competition, the various other authors, all with established reputations, whom she was up against, the challenge was an almighty one, and she succeeded. Not only is she young but she is a very new novelist. The Luminaries is only her second novel. To achieve this success this early bodes extremely well for her future.

It is a great occasion for this Parliament to celebrate a New Zealander’s success in the literary field. As the Prime Minister said, we do it regularly for sportspeople. This is an important occasion in its own right. It deserves to be recognised, and Eleanor deserves to be awarded the accolade of being our best writer, someone we can be proud of, someone whose success we welcome and appreciate, and someone whom we wish extremely well for the future in her career.

Motion agreed to.