User:Chocmilk03/Cathie Dunsford

Cathie Dunsford
Born	1952 (age 71–72) Auckland, New Zealand
Occupation	Writer anthologist lecturer
Education	University of Auckland (PhD)

Cathie Dunsford (born 1953) is a New Zealand fiction writer, poet, anthologist, lecturer and publishing consultant. She has edited several anthologies of feminist, lesbian and Māori/Pasifika writing, including the first anthology of New Zealand contemporary women's writing in 1986.

Life and career

Dunsford was born in Devonport, Auckland, in 1953. She is of Māori descent through the iwi (tribe) of Ngāpuhi, as well as Hawaiian and Pākehā (New Zealand European) descent. She attended Westlake Girls' High School. She has an MA and a PhD in English literature from the University of Auckland. Her PhD topic was Gothic fiction.

Dunsford was an English lecturer at the University of Auckland, teaching literature, creative writing and publishing, from 1975. She has described herself as "always completely open about being gay", and said this was difficult in the 70's because "there were not a lot of books on the subject, and there was not a strong, healthy gay culture". From 1983 to 1986 she taught New Zealand literature, lesbian literature and women's studies at the University of California, Berkeley as a Fulbright scholar. Since 1990 she has been the director of a publishing consultancy firm and has continued to teach in creative writing and publishing at various institutions including Whitireia New Zealand. She has an interest in environmentalism, a common theme in her works, and was the keynote speaker at the 2020 Oceanic Conference on Creativity and Climate Change in Suva, Fiji.

Dunston edited the first collection of New Zealand women's contemporary writing, New Women's Fiction (1986), published by the New Women's Press. She also edited the first Australian/New Zealand collection of lesbian women's work, The Exploding Frangipani (1990). In 1997 she was International Woman of the Year in Publishing (UK/Europe). She has published a non-fiction work, Getting Published – The Inside Story, which was launched at the 2003 Frankfurt Book Fair.

She has written a number of novels, as well as a volume of poetry, Survivors: Überlebende (1990), which was published in both German and English. Her novels have been translated into German and Turkish. Many of her novels are published by Australian feminist publisher, Spinifex Press. Her first novel, Cowrie, featured elements of magical realism, environmental issues and indigenous Pasifika cultures. It was published in Australia and New Zealand in 1994, and was described by David Hill as "lyrical to the edge of lushness, but buoyant with belief and commitment".

Selected works

Novels

• Cowrie (1994)
• Kia Kaha (1998)
• The Journey Home (1997)
• Manawa Toa: Heart Warrior (2000)
• Song of the Selkies (2001)
• Ao Toa: Earth Warriors (2004)
• Pele's Tsunami (2010)
• Kaitiakitanga Pasifika (2012)
• Occupy Omaha (2014)

Non-fiction

• Getting Published – The Inside Story (2003)

Anthologies

• New Women's Fiction (1986)
• The Exploding Frangipani: lesbian writing from Australia and New Zealand (1990), co-edited with Susan Hawthorne
• Subversive Acts (1991)
• Me and Marilyn Monroe (1993)
• Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love (1998), co-edited with Susan Hawthorne and Susan Sayer
• Other Lesbian Writing (1997)
• Vaka Moana: Pacific Writing (2007)

External links

• Profile on Read NZ Te Pou Muramura