Chris Else has had more than eight books published: six novels, and two collections of short fiction. His work appears in many anthologies and magazines, and he has written for stage and television. His most recent novel is Gith, published by Random House in 2008. In a Herald on Sundayreview Nicky Pellegrino wrote:
“Reading Gith is a bit like listening to a mate telling you a yarn over a beer down at the pub. Wellington authorChris Else has captured the suffocating feel of small town life and conjured up an intriguing mix of whodunit and offbeat love story, but most of all he’s completely nailed the voice of his narrator, Ken McUrran.”
Chris has been a holder of the Foxton Fellowship and has held several major Creative New Zealand grants for work on his fiction. He is very active in New Zealand literary organisations, with a long involvement in the NZ Society of Authors (PEN), the Montana Book Awards and has been a regular feature at arts and literary festivals around the country. Until recently he was chairman of Copyright Licensing Ltd.
With his wife, playwright, novelist and children’s writer, Barbara Else, he is a partner in Total Fiction Services, a literary agency and manuscript assessment service. They live in Lower Hutt.
Chris has been awarded the Autumn Residency at the Michael King Writers’ Centre to work on a major new novel which explores how society began to change in the 1960s and 1970s. The story follows the experiences of a group of friends, all from small-townNew Zealand, who have just left school and are embarking on their first years at university. It is set in the context of the growing counterculture, the developing world of student protests and the early feminist movement.
He will spend eight weeks at the centre between March and May 2012.
The photo of Chris was taken by Reg Graham.