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Gina Cole

MNZM
Cole in 2023
Cole in 2023
Born1960 (age 63–64)
Occupation
  • Writer
  • lawyer
Education
GenreIndigenous science fiction

Gina Annette Cole MNZM (born 1960) is a New Zealand writer and lawyer. Her writing is inspired by her experiences as a queer Fijian woman. Her short story collection Black Ice Matter received the award for best first book of fiction at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Her first novel Na Viro was published in July 2022.

Background and education

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Cole was born in 1960.[1][2] She is of Fijian, Scottish and Welsh descent.[3] From 1963 to 1966, she and her family lived on Farewell Spit, where her father was the lighthouse keeper.[4] As of 2022, she lives in Auckland.[3] She studied law at the University of Auckland and was admitted to the bar in 1991. She practiced as a barrister until 2018, when she closed her practice to focus on her writing.[1][5]

In 2013, Cole obtained a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Auckland,[5][6] and in 2020 she earned a PhD in Creative Writing from Massey University on the topic of indigenous science fiction.[7][8][9] She has said that as "an Indigenous Fijian queer woman writer I feel it is so important that we Indigenous peoples tell our own stories so that we can put forward our perspective and experience".[10] In 2014, she won a writing contest at the Auckland Pride Festival run by Express magazine with her poem "Airport Aubade".[1][11]

Writing career

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In 2017, Cole's short story collection Black Ice Matter received the award for best first book of fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.[3][12] A review by Stuff said that the collection "would be a good book on any reckoning but as a first book it is simply outstanding"; it "shows an assurance of tone, a clarity of style and expression, and an ability to handle different voices, that would be the envy of most more experienced authors".[13] She also had an essay published in the collection New Writing edited by Thom Conroy,[14] and a short story published in Black Marks on the White Page edited by Witi Ihimaera and Tina Makereti.[15]

In 2018, she attended the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.[1] In 2021, she was a writer-in-residence at the Michael King Writers Centre through a residency for established Pasifika writers,[7] was the first Pasifika curator at the Auckland Writers Festival,[1] and had work published in the anthology Out Here: An Anthology of Takatapui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa New Zealand edited by Chris Tse and Emma Barnes.[16]

In July 2022, Cole's first novel Na Viro was published. It is a science fiction novel set in the distant future and featuring Pacific culture.[3] In the week before 15 July 2022, it was the second-best selling fiction book in New Zealand.[17] A review in the New Zealand Listener described it as an "ambitious book", "at the forefront of a new and particularly interesting genre", but noted that the book was challenging to read in some respects.[18] A review in Landfall concluded that Na Viro is "an important and enjoyable pioneering story that not only brings a uniquely Pasifika voice to the genre but also uses its inter-galactic plot to celebrate the traditions and challenges of the Pacific".[19]

Cole received the inaugural International Residency with Australia, a partnership between the Michael King Writers Centre and Varuna, The Writers' House. The award involved a month's residency at Varuna, to be taken up in October 2022, and an appearance at the Blue Mountains Writers' Festival.[20] In 2022 she had a story published in the First Peoples Shared Stories anthology, and gave the annual Peter Wells lecture at the Same Same But Different literary festival.[1]

In the 2023 New Year Honours, Cole was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature.[21] In June 2023, she was announced as the recipient of the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer's Residency, which provides for three months' residency at the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi.[1][22] Her work was published in The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms (Routledge), Pacific Arts Aotearoa (Penguin) and A Kind of Shelter Whakaruru-Taha (Massey University Press).[1]

Selected works

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Gina Cole". Read NZ Te Pou Muramura. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  2. ^ "Black ice matter / Gina Cole". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d "Pasifika Sci-fi fantasy writer Gina Cole". Radio New Zealand. 6 July 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  4. ^ Sparrow, Brandon (7 October 2006). "Children of dunes". Nelson Mail. ProQuest 274541198. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Law alumna scores inaugural writers' residency". University of Auckland. 14 June 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  6. ^ Rodger, Victor. "Pacific Writing in New Zealand: The Niu Wave". Academy of New Zealand Literature. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  7. ^ a b Tania (23 March 2021). "Gina Cole: 2021 Established Pasifika Writers Residency". Michael King Writers Centre. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  8. ^ "My Doctoral Story: Gina Cole". Massey University. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  9. ^ Cole, Gina (2020). Wayfinding Pasifikafuturism : an indigenous science fiction vision of the ocean in space (Doctoral thesis). Massey Research Online, Massey University. hdl:10179/16334.
  10. ^ Lopesi, Lana (27 May 2022). "How does creativity help strengthen Pacific wellbeing and identities?". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  11. ^ Rumbles, Andrew (26 February 2014). "Literary lesbian emerges victorious". Express. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  12. ^ "Ockham NZ Book Awards: Catherine Chidgey, Victoria University Press the big winners". Stuff.co.nz. 16 May 2017. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  13. ^ Reid, Nicholas (28 September 2016). "Review: Black Ice Matter, Gina Cole". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  14. ^ Heritage, Elizabeth (23 July 2017). "Book review: Home: New Writing edited by Thom Conroy". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  15. ^ Ihimaera, Witi; Makereti, Tina, eds. (2017). Black Marks on the White Page. Auckland, NZ: Penguin Random House. ISBN 9780143770305.
  16. ^ "Out Here: An Anthology of Takatapui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa New Zealand". Vic Books. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  17. ^ Braunias, Steve (15 July 2022). "This week's best-selling books". Newsroom. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  18. ^ Cottrell, Jack Remiel (30 July 2022). "Out of this world". New Zealand Listener. p. 51.
  19. ^ Blundell, Sally (1 November 2022). "Plotting Pasifikafuturism". Landfall Review Online. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  20. ^ "Exporting Cole". The Big Idea. 2 June 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  21. ^ "New Year honours list 2023". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  22. ^ "Gina Cole awarded 2023 Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer's Residency". Creative New Zealand. 13 June 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
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