C. K. Stead

{{Infobox academic

| name = C. K. Stead

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|size=100%|ONZ|CBE}}

| image = C.K. Stead (cropped).jpg

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| caption = Stead in 2011

| pseudonym =

| birth_name = Christian Karlson Stead

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1932|10|17}}

| birth_place = Auckland, New Zealand

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| known_for = Novelist, poet, literary critic

| education = Mount Albert Grammar School

| alma_mater = University of Auckland (BA, 1954; MA, 1955)
University of Bristol (PhD, 1961)

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| doctoral_students = Roger Horrocks{{cite thesis |url=https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/2093 |title=Mosaic: a study of juxtaposition in literature, as an approach to Pound's Cantos and similar modern poems |year=1976 |publisher=University of Auckland |access-date=22 January 2019|type=Thesis |last1=Horrocks |first1=Roger }}

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| workplaces = University of Auckland

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| spouse = Kay Stead

| children = 3, inc. Charlotte Grimshaw

}}

Christian Karlson "Karl" Stead {{post-nominals|country=NZL|ONZ|CBE}} (born 17 October 1932) is a New Zealand writer whose works include novels, poetry, short stories, and literary criticism.{{cite news |title=Transcript of interview with Ramona Koval on The Book Show |url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/bookshow/ck-stead-poet-novelist-and-literary-critic/3274358#transcript |access-date=24 October 2020 |publisher=Radio National |date=5 May 2008}} He is one of New Zealand's most well-known and internationally celebrated writers.{{cite web |title=C.K. Stead |url=https://poetryarchive.org/poet/c-k-stead/ |website=The Poetry Archive |access-date=25 October 2020}}

Early life and education

Stead was born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1932. He attended Mount Albert Grammar School.{{cite web |title=Stead, C.K. |url=https://www.read-nz.org/writer/stead-ck/ |website=Read NZ Te Pou Muramura |access-date=24 October 2020}} He has said that growing up he rarely read New Zealand writers: "I read a few New Zealand writers at school but mainly it was a British education so one read British writers really". Stead began writing poetry at about age 14 when he read a copy of the collected works of Rupert Brooke, sent by his sister's penpal in England.

Stead graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Arts in 1954, and earned his Masters of Arts the following year.{{Britannica|564405|C.K. Stead}} At this time he and his wife were neighbours with short-story writer Frank Sargeson. Writer Janet Frame was living in a hut in Sargeson's garden, having recently been discharged after nine years in a mental hospital. Frame later wrote about this time in her memoir An Angel at My Table, and Stead covered the same period in his autobiographical novel All Visitors Ashore (1984).{{cite news |last1=Wroe |first1=Nicholas |title=Writing in the dark |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/mar/10/featuresreviews.guardianreview35 |access-date=25 October 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=10 March 2007}}

Academic and literary career

File:Hamilton2.jpg in Hamilton]]

Stead completed his PhD at the University of Bristol in 1961. From 1959 to 1986, Stead taught at the University of Auckland, becoming the Professor of English in 1968. In 1964, Stead published his first book, The New Poetic (1964), based on his PhD study of W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and the Georgian poets. It went on to sell over 100,000 copies. His first book of poems, Whether the Will Is Free: Poems 1954–62, was published in the same year.

Stead's first novel, Smith's Dream, about a war similar to the Vietnam War in New Zealand, was published in 1971. Stead was an opponent of the Vietnam War. Smith's Dream provided the basis for the film Sleeping Dogs, starring Sam Neill, which became the first New Zealand film released in the United States.

In the 1980s, Stead's writings about Māori rights and feminism became the subject of some criticism. For example, in an article published in the London Review of Books in December 1986, he wrote that the representation of New Zealand history by Witi Ihimaera in his novel The Matriarch (1986) was inaccurate "insofar as it ascribes conscious and malicious intent to the Pakeha and unwillingness to the Maori", and was highly critical of the novel.{{cite journal |last1=Stead |first1=C.K. |title=War Book |journal=London Review of Books |date=18 December 1986 |volume=8 |issue=22 |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v08/n22/c.k.-stead/war-book |access-date=25 October 2020}} In consequence his editorship of the Faber Book of Contemporary South Pacific Stories was boycotted by some writers, including Keri Hulme, although Stead denied accusations of racism or being anti-Māori.{{cite journal |last1=Mitenkova |first1=Maria |title=Challenging Biculturalism: the Case of C.K. Stead |journal=Journal of New Zealand Literature |date=2017 |volume=1 |issue=35 |page=117 |jstor=90015308 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/90015308 |access-date=25 October 2020}} Stead was active in protests against the 1981 protest against Springboks and was part of the crowd that occupied the field at a game in Hamilton causing its cancellation.{{cite book |last=Russell |first=Marcia |author-link=Marcia Russell |title=Revolution:New Zealand from Fortress to Free Market |publisher=Hodder Moa Beckett |year=1996 |isbn=1869584287 |pages=26–7 }}

Stead retired from his position as the Professor of English at the University of Auckland in 1986 to write full time, after the success of his novel All Visitors Ashore (1984).{{cite encyclopedia |last=Jensen |first=Kai |editor1-last=Robinson |editor1-first=Roger |editor2-last=Wattie |editor2-first=Nelson |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature |title=Stead, C.K. |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001/acref-9780195583489-e-1173 |access-date=25 October 2020 |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1917-3519-6 |oclc=865265749 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001}} In the following two decades he wrote a string of internationally successful novels, and twice won the fiction section of the New Zealand Book Awards with All Visitors Ashore and The Singing Whakapapa (1994). Stead's historical novel Mansfield: A Novel, based on the life of the writer Katherine Mansfield, was a finalist for the 2005 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize and received commendation in the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region.{{cite news |title=C.K. Stead awarded Michael King Fellowship |url=https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0507/S00086/ck-stead-awarded-michael-king-fellowship.htm |access-date=25 October 2020 |publisher=Scoop|location=New Zealand |agency=Creative New Zealand |date=11 July 2005}}

Stead has continued to write and receive international accolades well into his seventies and eighties. In 2010 he won the inaugural Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award for his short story "Last Season's Man".{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/mar/26/stead-short-story-prize |title=CK Stead wins short story prize |work=The Guardian |author=Alison Flood |date=26 March 2010 |access-date=22 January 2013}}{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8589521.stm |title=New Zealand author Stead wins short story prize |publisher=BBC News |author=Staff writer |author-link=Staff writer |date=26 March 2010 |access-date=22 January 2013}} The short story was subject to some controversy, with literary commentator Fergus Barrowman suggesting that it appeared to be a "revenge fantasy" about Stead's rivalry with younger writer Nigel Cox, who had criticised Stead in a 1994 essay.{{cite news |last1=Hubbard |first1=Anthony |title=Widow shocked by perceived attack on dead writer |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/3570374/Widow-shocked-by-perceived-attack-on-dead-writer |access-date=25 October 2020 |publisher=Stuff|location=New Zealand |date=11 April 2010}} The story was reported on by UK satirical magazine Private Eye.{{cite news |title=Stead story attracts British barbs |url=https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/sunday-star-times/20100418/281724085750098 |access-date=25 October 2020 |work=Sunday Star Times |date=18 April 2010}} Stead in response has said that the story was a work of fiction.{{cite news |last1=Dudding |first1=Adam |title=Grumpy resting face: inside the mind of CK Stead |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/107713690/grumpy-resting-face-inside-the-mind-of-ck-stead |access-date=25 October 2020 |publisher=Stuff|location=New Zealand |date=21 October 2018}}

Stead was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to New Zealand literature, in the 1985 New Year Honours,{{London Gazette |issue=49970 |date=31 December 1984 |page=s |supp=2}} and was admitted into the highest civilian honour New Zealand can bestow, the Order of New Zealand in the 2007 Special Honours.{{cite journal |url=https://gazette.govt.nz/notice/id/2007-vr3401 |title=Special honours list |journal=New Zealand Gazette |issue=56 |page=1451 |date=24 May 2007 |access-date=7 June 2020}}

In August 2015, Stead was named the New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2015 to 2017.{{cite news|title=CK Stead named as new NZ Poet Laureate|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11495388|access-date=24 September 2015|work=The New Zealand Herald|date=11 August 2015}} To celebrate the conclusion of Stead's term as Poet Laureate,{{Cite web|url=http://www.poetlaureate.org.nz/2017/08/last-last-cks-signs-off-as-laureate.html|title=Last last – C.K.S signs off as laureate|website=poetlaureate.org.nz|access-date=2017-08-28}} the Alexander Turnbull Library published a signed, limited edition book of his work called In the Mirror, and Dancing. The little volume of poems was hand-pressed by Brendan O'Brien and illustrated with line sketches by New Zealand expatriate artist Douglas MacDiarmid.{{Cite web|url=https://natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/the-making-of-in-the-mirror-and-dancing|title=The making of: 'In the mirror, and dancing' {{!}} Blog {{!}} National Library of New Zealand|publisher=National Library of New Zealand|access-date=2017-08-28}} The book was launched on 8 August 2017 in Wellington, with the assistance of Gregory O'Brien.{{Cite web|url=https://natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/in-the-mirror-and-dancing|title=In the mirror, and dancing {{!}} Blog {{!}} National Library of New Zealand|publisher=National Library of New Zealand|access-date=2017-08-28}}

Personal life

Stead and his wife Kay have three children. His daughter Charlotte Grimshaw is a well-known New Zealand writer.

List of awards and honours

1955 Poetry Awards Incorporated prize (U.S.A.)
1960 Landfall Readers' Award
1972 Katherine Mansfield Short Story award{{cite web |title=C. K. Stead – ANZL Fellow |url=https://www.anzliterature.com/member/c-k-stead/ |website=C. K. Stead |publisher=Academy of New Zealand Literature |access-date=25 October 2020}}
1972 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship{{cite web|title=List of fellows|url=http://mansfieldfellowship.org/fellows.html|website=Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship|publisher=Creative NZ|access-date=3 June 2016|archive-date=9 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160709163839/http://mansfieldfellowship.org/fellows.html|url-status=dead}}
1984 Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to New Zealand literature
1990 Queen's Medal
1995 Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
2005 Creative New Zealand Michael King Fellowship
2001 Honorary DLitt from the University of Bristol{{cite web |title=Honorary graduates – 1995–2015 |url=http://www.bristol.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-degrees/honorary-graduates/honorary-1995-2015/ |publisher=University of Bristol |access-date=25 October 2020}}
2007 Member of the Order of New Zealand{{cite web|title=NZ Book Council profile|url=http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/steadck.html|website=New Zealand Book Council|access-date=3 June 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510015547/http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/steadck.html|archive-date=10 May 2016}}
2009 Montana Prize (for Collected Poems 1951–2006){{cite web|url=http://www.poetlaureate.org.nz/p/c-k-stead-new-zealand-poet-laureate.html|title=New Zealand poet laureate profile|website=New Zealand Poet Laureate|access-date=3 June 2016}}
2009 Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement{{cite web |url=http://www.creativenz.govt.nz/en/results-of-our-work/award-winners/prime-minister-s-awards-for-literary-achievement |title=Previous winners |publisher=Creative New Zealand |access-date=24 October 2013}}
2010 Sunday Times Short Story Award (UK) (for "Last Season's Man"){{cite web|last1=Somerset|first1=Guy|title=A man for all seasons?|url=http://www.listener.co.nz/commentary/a-man-for-all-seasons/|website=The Listener|access-date=3 June 2016}}
2011 Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement
2014 Sarah Broom Poetry Prize{{Cite web|url=https://nzpoetryshelf.com/2014/05/18/the-winner-of-the-sarah-broom-poetry-award-has-been-announced/|title=The winner of The Sarah Broom Poetry Award has been announced|last=Green|first=Paula|date=18 May 2014|website=NZ Poetry Shelf|access-date=22 January 2019}}

=New Zealand Book Awards=

1976 Quesada (Poetry)
1985 All Visitors Ashore (Fiction, shared with Marilyn Duckworth)
1995 The Singing Whakapapa (Fiction)

Selected works

Whether the Will is Free: Poems 1954–62 (1964)
The New Poetic (1964)
Smith's Dream (1971)
Crossing the Bar (1972)
Quesada: Poems 1972–74 (1975)
Measure for Measure (1977, editor)
Walking Westward (1979)
Five for the Symbol (1981)
Geographies (1982)
In the Glass Case: Essays on New Zealand literature (1982)
Poems of a Decade (1983)
Paris: A poem (1984)
All Visitors Ashore (1984)
The Death of the Body (1986)
Pound, Yeats, Eliot and the Modernist Movement (1986)
Between (1988)
Sister Hollywood (1989)
Answering to the Language: Essays on modern writers (1989)
Voices (1990)
The End of the Century at the End of the World (1992)
The Singing Whakapapa (1994)
Villa Vittoria (1997)
Straw into Gold: New and selected poems (1997)
The Blind Blonde with Candles in Her Hair (1998)
Talking About O'Dwyer (1999)
The Right Thing (2000)
The Writer at Work: Essays (2000)
The Secret History of Modernism (2001)
Dog (2002)
Kin of Place: Essays on 20 New Zealand writers (2002)
Mansfield: a novel (2004)
My Name Was Judas (2006)
The Black River (2007)
Book Self: Essays (2008)
South West of Eden (A Memoir, 1932–1956, 2009)
Ischaemia (winning poem of the 2010 International Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine){{cite journal |last=Stead |first=CK |year=2010 |title=Inaugural 2010 International Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine: Open International 1st Prize |journal=Postgraduate Medical Journal |volume=87 |issue=1023 |pages=26 |issn=0032-5473 |doi=10.1136/pgmj.2010.114199|s2cid=219192254 }};Hulse M, Singer D, eds. [https://archive.today/20120711051516/http://go.warwick.ac.uk/cpt/poetry/book/ The Hippocrates Prize 2010. The winning and commended poems]. The Hippocrates Prize in association with Top Edge Press, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-9545495-5-8}}.
Risk (2012)
In the Mirror, and Dancing (2017)
The Necessary Angel (2018)
You Have A Lot to Lose: A Memoir 1956–1986 (2020)
What You Made of It: A Memoir 1987–2010 (2021)

External links

[http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/name-121220.html C.K. Stead] at the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection archive
[https://www.read-nz.org/writer/stead-ck/ C.K. Stead], profile on Read NZ website
[http://culturalicons.co.nz/episode/c.k.-stead Interview with C.K. Stead] for [http://culturalicons.co.nz/ Cultural Icons] project. Video and audio
[https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/kaleidoscope-ck-stead-1986 1986 Profile of C.K. Stead] on the Kaleidoscope television series