Posted on 29-1-2004

Legendary NZ writer Janet Frame dies

Acclaimed New Zealand writer Janet Frame died this morning in Dunedin Hospital. She was 79.

Frame revealed in December she was suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia (a cancer of the blood and bone marrow). She had been diagnosed with the terminal disease on August 28 -- her birthday.

Frame -- whose books had received numerous awards and seen her frequently touted as a prospect for the Nobel Literature Prize -- won her final award this year, the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement.

Frame was born in Dunedin in 1924. Her first collection of short stories, The Lagoon and Other Stories, won the Hubert Church Memorial Award in 1952.

Her first novel, Owls Do Cry (1957), received national and international acclaim and in 1958 won her the inaugural New Zealand Literature Fund for Achievement. From there, her career developed rapidly.

Living in London and the United States for extended periods, she published five novels and a collection of short stories during the 1960s, closely followed by another two novels in the early 1970s -- Intensive Care and Daughter Buffalo.

Living in the Maniototo, published in 1979, was followed by Frame's acclaimed autobiography. Each of the volumes won prizes: To The Is-land (1982) and The Envoy From Mirror City (1985) won the Wattie Book of the Year Award while the second volume, An Angel at My Table (1984), was placed third.

Altogether, she wrote 11 novels, five short story collections, a poetry collection and her autobiography. She was a member of the Order of New Zealand and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Last year she also received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon Award.