Although New Zealand writer Becky Manawatu’s first novel Auē received numerous awards, the experience of being a published writer, and a popular one at that, is something she’s still coming to terms with.
Becky speaks to Lynn Freeman in front of a Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival audience.
Becky Manawatu Photo: Tim Manawatu
Photo: Makaro Press
Becky Manawatu:
I was flying to Tauranga. There was a woman beside me on a plane and she was reading my book. And it was the first time I saw that – someone who was not in my family reading it somewhere random. And I was like, “Oooooh!” My heart was going crazy, and then I was like, “Should I tell her?” (Laughs)
And then I said, “No. Don’t tell her now because if she doesn’t like the book it’s a really long flight.”
So I waited. I had my own book to read. But I couldn’t concentrate, because I was trying to grab an idea of what her expression was like.
Lynn Freeman:
Make sure she wasn’t speed reading?
Becky Manawatu:
Yes, the whole time. I did try and do a sneaky [sideways glance] but I didn’t. I thought that was rude. So she was reading it, and we went to land, and she put the book down in her lap. And then, I was, like, “I’m going to tell her.”
So I whispered, “I wrote that.”
That’s really what I did! And I had the mask on my face. And then I was, like, “Do you want me to prove it?”
And I did tell her I was having quite a good hair day on that day [of the publicity photoshoot], because I wasn’t on the day we were having the flight.
Yeah, that was really cool. I’d never seen anyone out in the world reading it, and I just couldn’t believe that she was right beside me.
Lynn Freeman:
I remember watching the video of you when you won the Ockham Award (for Best New Novel). It was the first time they tried to use Zoom for the ceremony, just as we came out of lockdown. Your whole whanau were around you, and their faces just lit up. You were genuinely astonished, and your family were just so happy for you.
Becky Manawatu:
Yeah, they were. It was actually quite a hilarious scene. If you had seen a minute before that, my Dad was sat in one chair. My husband was actually further away from me. And so they announced it. And my husband leaps out of the chair, and he’s like, “Yeah!” Dad’s already stood up ready to come over for the big hug, as he should get the first hug. He’s my Dad. (Laughs)
But, my husband, being a rugby player, somehow managed to come in and sort of lift me up, so it was almost a little bit awkward. I could see that Dad was a bit pissed off about it. (Laughs)
Writer Becky Manawatu giving her acceptance speech via the livestream of the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards on 12 May, 2020. Photo: YouTube / Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
Becky Manawatu
Becky Manawatu was born in Nelson in June 1982, and raised on the West Coast, attending Waimangaroa Primary School near Westport. She met her husband Tim while at Buller High School and has two children.
Having begun a Diploma in Writing at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology in 2016, she moved back to Waimangaroa and began working as a reporter at the Westport News.
Manawatu began writing her first novel Auē while living in Frankfurt, and it was published by Mākaro Press in August 2019.
The novel tells the story of eight-year-old orphan Arama sent to live with rural relatives in Kaikōura, and his teenage brother Tauriki.
In 2020 Auē won the $55,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, as well as the Hubert Church Prize for best first book of fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
It also won the Best Crime Novel category in the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards and was shortlisted for the Best First Novel.
The judges described it as "a breath-taking expose of lives lived on the margins, and the fight for redemption and absolution". Auē was the best-selling New Zealand novel of 2020.
Manawatu was awarded the 2021 Robert Burns Fellowship to work on her next novel Papahaua.
– Wikipedia
This audio was recorded for the Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival by Otago Access Radio with funding from Copyright Licensing New Zealand
Photo: DWRF, OAR
