James Norcliffe

James Samuel Norcliffe (born 3 March 1946) is a New Zealand novelist, short story writer, poet, editor, teacher and educator. His work has been widely published and he has been the recipient of a number of writing residencies. Several of his books have been shortlisted for or won awards, including The Loblolly Boy which won the New Zealand Post Junior Fiction Award in 2010. He lives at Church Bay, Lyttelton Harbour, New Zealand.

James Norcliffe
Norcliffe in 2008
Born	James Samuel Norcliffe (1946-03-03) 3 March 1946 (age 78) Greymouth, New Zealand
Occupation	Writer
Website
jamesnorcliffe.com

Biography

James Norcliffe was born on 3 March 1946^[1] in Greymouth.^[2] Some of his favourite books as a child were classics such as Coral Island, Treasure Island, The Heroes, Swiss Family Robinson, Alice in Wonderland and Wind in the Willows, Elleston Trevor’s The Island of the Pines, and the Just William books and Bunter.^[3]

He is a teacher, writer and editor and has published several collections of poetry and a number of novels for children and young adults.^[2] His work has been published widely in journals both in New Zealand (including Landfall, Islands and Sport) and overseas, and his short stories for children have been widely anthologised.^[4] He has been poetry and short story editor of takahē magazine^[5] and poetry editor of the Christchurch Press,^[6] and has worked closely with the Christchurch School for Young Writers, including editing the annual Re-Draft anthologies.^[7] With Joanna Preston, he collected earthquake poems written in the weeks and months after the 2010 Canterbury Earthquake and subsequent earthquakes, and edited Leaving the Red Zone, an anthology of 148 poems by 87 poets from across New Zealand.^[8][9][10] With Elizabeth Smither, he was judge of the 2016 Flash Fiction Day competition.^[11][12]

He has appeared at a number of festivals and other book events including the Queensland Poetry Festival (2008), the International Poetry Festival in Medellin, Colombia, (2010), the Trois Rivieres International Poetry Festival in Quebec (2011)^[13][14] and the WORD Christchurch Festival (2018).^[15]

James Norcliffe has lived in or near Christchurch for much of his life, apart from spells in China (in the 1980s) and Brunei Darussalam (in the 1990s).^[6][7] He is married with two children and lives with his wife at Church Bay, Lyttelton Harbour.^[2]

Awards and prizes 

Several of Norcliffe's books have been shortlisted for awards or named as Storylines Notable Books.^[16] The Assassin of Gleam won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for the best New Zealand fantasy novel of 2006, and was shortlisted for the 2007 LIANZA Esther Glen Medal. The Loblolly Boy won the 2010 NZ Post Junior Fiction Award and was shortlisted for the Esther Glen Medal and the Sir Julius Vogel Science Fiction Award.^[17]

Norcliffe won the Lilian Ida Smith Award in 1990^[18] and the New Zealand Poetry Society's international competition in 1992.^[17][19] In 2003, he and Bernadette Hall received the inaugural Christchurch Press Literary Liaisons Honour Award for ‘lasting contribution to literature in the South Island’.^[17]

Norcliffe was awarded the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago in 2000.^[20] In 2006, he took up the Creative New Zealand Iowa University Fellowship and also took part in the Tasmanian Writers’ Island of Residencies programme.^[19] He was Visiting Artist at Massey University in 2008^[21] and he was the recipient of the 2012 University of Otago College of Education / Creative New Zealand Children's Writer in Residence.^[22][23] During this residency, he wrote his children's novel Felix and the Red Rats.^[24] He was the Creative New Zealand Randell Cottage Writing Fellow in 2018.^[25][26]

In 2022 he received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry,^[27] while in 2023 he won the Margaret Mahy Medal.^[28]

Publications

As author

• Under the Rotunda (Hazard Press, 1992)
• Penguin Bay (Hazard Press, 1993)
• The Emerald Encyclopedia (Hazard Press, 1994)
• The Carousel Experiment (Hazard Press, 1995)
• The Fun House Mirror with Alan Bunn and Marissa Johnpillai (Clerestory Press, 2003)
• The Assassin of Gleam (Hazard Press, 2005)
• The Loblolly Boy (Longacre Press, 2009)
• The Loblolly Boy and the Sorcerer (Longacre Press/Random House, 2011)
• The Enchanted Flute (Longacre Press/Random House, 2012)
• Packing a Bag for Mars (Clerestory Press, 2012)
• Shadow Play (Proverse Hong Kong, 2012. A Proverse Prize Publication. Pbk with an audio CD of all poems in the collection)
• Felix and the Red Rats (Longacre / Random House, 2013)
• The Pirates and the Night Maker (Longacre Press / Random House, 2015)
• Dark Days in the Oxygen Café (Victoria University Press, 2016)
• Twice Upon A Time (Puffin, 2017)

As editor

• Re-Draft 2 (with Alan Bunn) (Clerestory Press/School for Young Writers, 2002)
• Re-Draft 3 (with Alan Bunn) (Clerestory Press/School for Young Writers, 2003)
• Re-Draft 4 (with Alan Bunn) (Clerestory Press/School for Young Writers, 2004)
• Cupid on a Friday Night: Re-Draft 5 (with Alan Bunn) (Clerestory Press/School for Young Writers, 2005)
• Tennis with Raw Eggs: Re-Draft 6 (with Alan Bunn) (Clerestory Press/School for Young Writers, 2006)
• The Polar Bear Ward: Re-Draft 7 (with Tessa Duder) (Clerestory Press/School for Young Writers, 2007)
• D.I.Y Graffiti: Re-Draft 8 (with Tessa Duder) (Clerestory Press/School for Young Writers, 2008)
• Fishing for Birds: Re-Draft 9 (with Tessa Duder) (Clerestory Press/ School for Young Writers, 2009)
• The Steepest Street in the World: Re-Draft 10 (with Tessa Duder) (Clerestory Press/School For Young Writers, 2010)
• The Temptation of Sunlight: Redraft 11 (with Tessa Duder) (Clerestory Press, 2011)
• Walking a Tightrope in Bare Feet: Redraft 12 (with Tessa Duder) (Clerestory Press, 2012)
• Mad Honey: Redraft 13 (with Tessa Duder) (Clerestory Press, 2013)
• Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page (with Harry Ricketts and Siobhan Harvey) (Random House / Godwit, 2014)
• The Word is Out: Redraft 14 (with Tessa Duder) (Clerestory Press, 2014)
• They Call Me Ink: Redraft 15 (with Tessa Duder) (Clerestory Press, 2015)
• Leaving the Red Zone: poems from the Canterbury Earthquakes (with Joanna Preston) (Clerestory Press, 2016)
• Bonsai: Best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand' (with Michelle Elvy and Frankie McMillan) (Canterbury University Press, 2018)

References

1. "Interview with James Norcliffe". Christchurch City Libraries Nga Kete Wananga o Otautahi. 2002. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
2. "James Norcliffe". Storylines. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
3. Green, Paula (14 November 2013). "Reading Festival: James Norcliffe was a child for so long!". Poetry Box. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
4. "James Norcliffe". NZSA The New Zealand Society of Authors (Pen NZ Inc) Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
5. "James Norcliffe". Best New Zealand Poems 2005. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
6. "James Norcliffe". Virtual Learning Network. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
7. Rapatahana, Vaughan (18 September 2015). "Three southern gentlemen poets: David Eggleton; David Howard; James (Jim) Norcliffe". Jacket2. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
8. "Joanna Preston and James Norcliffe - Canterbury Poems". Radio NZ. 28 February 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
9. Zelas, Karen (1 March 2016). "Earthquake poetry anthology launch". Takahe magazine. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
10. Matthews, Philip (30 March 2016). "Poetry from a broken city". Stuff. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
11. Styles, Rebecca (29 February 2016). "Interview: Rebecca Styles with 2016 NFFD Judges James Norcliffe and Elizabeth Smither". Flash Frontier. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
12. Black, Eleanor (20 June 2016). "Fifth National Flash Fiction Day biggest yet". Stuff. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
13. "Ten days of poetry". Jottings. 12 October 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
14. "James Norcliffe ANZL Member". ANZL Academy of New Zealand Literature Te Whare Matatuhi o Aotearoa. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
15. "Sometimes, What You Don't Say Is the Story". Word Christchurch Festival 2018. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
16. . Storylines. Archived from the original on 12 December 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
17. "James Norcliffe". Penguin Books New Zealand. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
18. "NZSA Lilian Ida Smith Award : recipients to 2017". NZSA The New Zealand Society of Authors (Pen NZ Inc) Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
19. "Norcliffe, James". New Zealand Book Council Te Kaunihera Pukapuka o Aotearoa. May 2016. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
20. "The Robert Burns Fellowship - previous recipients since the Fellowship was established". University of Otago Te Whare Wananga o Otago. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
21. "Visiting Artist Scheme". Massey University Te Kunenga ki Purehuroa. 2 November 2018. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
22. "The University of Otago College of Education/Creative New Zealand Children's Writer in Residence - Previous Recipients". University of Otago Te Whare Wananga o Otago. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
23. Haggart, Matthew (14 September 2011). "Continuing a 'fine tradition'". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
24. "Q & A with James Norcliffe, author of Felix and the Red Rats – a finalist in the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards". My Opinion on Various Books. 20 April 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
25. "The Writers". Randell Cottage Writers Trust. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
26. Norcliffe, James (Spring 2018). "A distinctive residency". New Zealand Author. Issue 314: 31–32. {{cite journal}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
27. Chumko, André (1 December 2022). "Writers honoured by prime minister for their contribution to New Zealand literature". Stuff. from the original on 1 December 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
28. "Norcliffe announced as 2023 Margaret Mahy Medal winner". Books+Publishing. 8 March 2023. Retrieved 8 March 2023.