Catherine Chidgey

Chidgey was born in Auckland and grew up in the Hutt Valley.{{Cite news|last1=Cronin|first1=Aimee|date=28 October 2020|title=Catherine Chidgey by Aimee Cronin & Jane Ussher|url=https://www.newsroom.co.nz/page/catherine-chidgey-by-aimee-cronin-and-jane-ussher|access-date=20 January 2021|work=Newsroom}} At Victoria University of Wellington she completed a BSc in Psychology, and a BA in German Language and Literature. In 1993 she was awarded a German Academic Exchange Service scholarship to study at the Freie Universität Berlin. She returned to Victoria University in 1997 to complete an MA in Creative Writing under Bill Manhire.{{Cite web|last=Black|first=Eleanor|date=16 November 2016|title=Catherine Chidgey on infertility and her new novel|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/86531658/catherine-chidgey-on-infertility-and-her-new-novel|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912183708/http://www.stuff.co.nz:80/entertainment/books/86531658/catherine-chidgey-on-infertility-and-her-new-novel |archive-date=12 September 2017 |access-date=20 January 2021|website=Stuff |language=en}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Chidgey, Catherine|url=https://www.read-nz.org/writer/chidgey-catherine/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200123153425/https://www.read-nz.org/writer/chidgey-catherine/ |archive-date=23 January 2020 |access-date=20 January 2021|website=Read NZ}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Catherine Chidgey|url=https://vup.victoria.ac.nz/brands/Catherine-Chidgey.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130604163915/http://vup.victoria.ac.nz/brands/Catherine-Chidgey.html |archive-date=4 June 2013 |access-date=20 January 2021|website=Victoria University Press}}

{{As of|2021}} she lives in Hamilton with her husband and daughter.{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=Rebecca |title=Treasured objects bring life to writing |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/treasured-objects-bring-life-writing |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=Otago Daily Times |date=14 October 2021}} Chidgey has explained that the 13-year gap between her third and fourth novels was due to infertility issues keeping her from writing; she and her husband finally had their daughter in 2015.

Her debut novel, In a Fishbone Church, was published in 1998 and was widely praised in New Zealand and overseas, winning the Hubert Church Award for Best First Book of Fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards in 1998. The writer Nick Hornby said "Catherine Chidgey is a wonderful new talent, and In a Fishbone Church marks the beginning of what promises to be a glorious literary career".{{Cite book|title=In a Fishbone Church |last=Catherine |first=Chidgey |date=2000 |publisher=Picador |isbn=9780330371803| location=London |oclc=42580322}} Louis de Bernières called the novel "warm, subtle and evocative. You will be thinking about it long after you have finished reading". In 1999 In a Fishbone Church won Best First Book at the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (South East Asia and Pacific Region). It also won a Betty Trask Award for a first book (UK), and was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction (UK).

Her second novel, Golden Deeds, was published in 2000, and was runner-up for the Deutz Medal for Fiction at the 2000 New Zealand Book Awards. It was published by Picador in the UK and by Henry Holt in the US (under the title The Strength of the Sun), where it was a 2002 Notable Book of the Year in The New York Times Book Review, and a 2002 Best Book in the LA Times Book Review. The Times Literary Supplement called it "magnanimous and merciless, a work reminiscent at times of darkest Atwood ... A witty and melancholy alchemy of heat and chill, a work of craft and fluency, which revitalizes the book in all its guises ... for those who love books, Catherine Chidgey is a find".{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Ali|date=15 September 2000|title=The Stuff of Books|journal=The Times Literary Supplement|pages=23}} The Sunday Express called it "a wonderful, gripping read. Human relations and needs are explored in all their complexity. Chidgey proves herself to be among that elite group of authors who possess a true grasp of the patterns of life".{{Cite news|title=Tales of isolation and connection|last=Hunt|first=Anna|date=24 September 2000|work=Sunday Express}} The Independent on Sunday said the novel "ensnares you, creeps up and snaffles you with its small, tense concerns. I could not stop thinking about it. I could not put it down ... I finished Golden Deeds with that delicious and rare feeling: that I was in the presence of a proper, grown-up storyteller who cared not a toss for gimmicks or manifestoes, but dared instead to put her case with real authorial power and verve".{{Cite news|title=Refreshingly diffident|last=Myerson|first=Julie|date=5 November 2000|work=The Independent on Sunday}}

The Transformation, Chidgey's third novel, was published in 2003, and that year she was named New Zealand's best novelist under forty by The New Zealand Listener.Carolyn Bain, George Dunford, Lonely Planet New Zealand, pp. 48, Lonely Planet, 2006, {{ISBN|1-74104-535-5}}, {{ISBN|978-1-74104-535-2}}.{{cite news |title=Writers sought for prize |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/337922797 |access-date=5 December 2021 |work=Dominion Post |date=24 May 2003 |page=A12|id={{ProQuest|337922797}} }} The book tells the story of a shadowy Parisian wig-maker who flees to Tampa, Florida in the 1890s. The Sunday Times said that "Chidgey spins a horror story which, miraculously avoiding easy sensationalism, is both troubling and haunting",{{Cite news|title=The Transformation|date=15 May 2005|work=The Sunday Times}} and the New Zealand Herald said it was "her third and best so far ... Chidgey could tackle any subject and produce something wonderful from it. She has that gift of the imagination that finds metaphor, contiguity and paradox wherever she looks, and a seemingly innate feel for structuring events, times and historical detail to make one whole, satisfying narrative out of a myriad unexpected parts".{{Cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=3532419|title=Catherine Chidgey: The Transformation|work=The New Zealand Herald |access-date=22 July 2017|language=en-NZ}} The Sunday Express'' remarked, "This really is a novel to get lost in ... A highly original read, as beautiful as it is terrifying, which manages to be riotously chilling without ever going over the top".{{Cite news|title=Ghoulish Goulet shines in a hair-raising chiller|last=Groskop|first=Viv|date=1 May 2005|work=Sunday Express}}

Her fourth novel, The Wish Child, set in Nazi Germany, was published in New Zealand in 2016 and was a bestseller, winning the 2017 Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards{{Cite web|url=http://www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards/2017-awards/winners/|title=Winners {{!}} New Zealand Book Awards Trust|website=www.nzbookawards.nz|access-date=21 July 2017}}—the country's richest literary prize. Radio New Zealand called it "a brilliant, brilliant novel ... a masterpiece".{{Cite news|url=http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201825704/book-review-the-wish-child|title=Book Review – The Wish Child {{!}} Nine To Noon, 10:38 am on 29 November 2016 {{!}} RNZ|date=29 November 2016|work=Radio New Zealand |access-date=21 July 2017|language=en-nz}} The New Zealand Herald found it "meticulously crafted and superbly written ... provocative, haunting, intelligent and lyrical ... breath-taking... It will stay with you long after you finish the final page".{{Cite news|title=Haunting and deeply evocative|last=Christian|first=Dionne|date=17 December 2016|work=The New Zealand Herald }} The Sunday Star-Times commented "Right from the first sentences I was caught up in the exquisite lure of the writing: musical, clear, lovingly tended. Nothing seems forced ... I loved this book with its subterranean mysteries and spiky issues. I love the way, at this critical point in the world, when fundamental human values are violated, The Wish Child reminds us with grace and understated wisdom of a need to strive for universal good. I ached as I read. This novel is unmissable".{{Cite news|title=New work fulfils all our wishes|last=Green|first=Paula|date=27 November 2016|work=The Sunday Star-Times}} It was published in the UK in July 2017 by Chatto & Windus, with The Times calling it "a remarkable book with a stunningly original twist".{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/one-surrogate-one-donor-three-modern-families-t25zm99lr|title=One surrogate, one donor, three modern families|last=Midgley|first=Carol|access-date=21 July 2017|language=en}} In October 2018 Counterpoint published it in the US as a lead Fall title.

Her fifth book was released in November 2017. A 'found' novel, The Beat of the Pendulum was written during 2016, with Chidgey drawing on newspaper articles, Facebook posts, emails, radio broadcasts, books, street signs and conversations to create an entry for every day of the year.{{Cite web|url=http://pantograph-punch.com/post/catherine_chidgey|title=A Year Found: A conversation with Catherine Chidgey|website=Pantograph Punch|language=en|access-date=22 July 2017}} Radio New Zealand selected it as a Best Book of 2017, calling it "Important in terms of its form as much as its content ... sensationally clever writing ... an enormously skilled writer who totally gets the craft".{{cite web|url=https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018629251/nz-books-review-best-of-2017|title=NZ Books Review – Best of 2017|date=24 January 2018|accessdate=14 June 2018}} It was longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards{{Cite web|url=http://www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards/2018-awards/longlist/|title=2018 Awards Longlist | New Zealand Book Awards Trust}} and was published in the UK by Lightning Books in 2019.{{Cite web|url=http://eye-books.com/books/the-beat-of-the-pendulum|title=The Beat of the Pendulum by Catherine Chidgey | Eye Books}}

Chidgey's sixth book, Remote Sympathy, was published in 2020, and like The Wish Child is set in Nazi Germany.{{Cite web|title=Catherine Chidgey Products – Victoria University Press|url=https://vup.victoria.ac.nz/brands/Catherine-Chidgey.html|access-date=29 January 2021|website=vup.victoria.ac.nz}} It was shortlisted for the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.{{Cite web|last=|date=3 March 2021|title=Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2021 shortlists announced|url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2021/03/03/163470/ockham-new-zealand-book-awards-2021-shortlists-announced/|url-status=live|access-date=3 March 2021|website=Books+Publishing|language=en-AU|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303005617/https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2021/03/03/163470/ockham-new-zealand-book-awards-2021-shortlists-announced/ |archive-date=3 March 2021 }} It was a Sunday Times Book of the Month,{{cite news |last1=Rennison |first1=Nick |title=The Sunday Times picks of the best new historical novels for April 2021 |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/the-sunday-times-picks-of-the-best-new-historical-novels-for-april-2021-gx00rs3d7 |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=The Sunday Times |date=23 April 2021}} and was described by The Guardian as "immersive, profound and beautifully plotted".{{cite news |last1=Dass |first1=Kiran |title=Short stories leave authors nowhere to hide. But Ockham winner Beautrais nails it every time |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/13/short-stories-leave-authors-nowhere-to-hide-but-ockham-winner-beautrais-nails-it-every-time |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=13 May 2021}} Publishers Weekly praised Chidgey's exploration of the intersecting stories of former Nazis and Holocaust survivors, concluding: "With its multiple registers and complex view of humanity, this marks a vital turn in Holocaust literature".{{cite news |title=Remote Sympathy |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-60945-627-6 |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=15 March 2021}} It was one of New Zealand's top ten best-selling novels in 2021,{{cite news |last=Braunias |first=Steve |url=https://www.newsroom.co.nz/the-best-selling-books-of-2021 |access-date=24 December 2021 |date=24 December 2021 |title=The best-selling books of 2021 |work=Newsroom}} was shortlisted for the 2022 International Dublin Literary Award,{{cite news |title=Chidgey shortlisted for Dublin Literary Award |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2022/04/04/212558/chidgey-shortlisted-for-dublin-literary-award/ |access-date=11 August 2022 |work=Books+Publishing |date=4 April 2022}} and was longlisted for the 2022 Women's Prize for Fiction.{{Cite web |date=8 March 2022 |title=Announcing the Women's Prize 2022 longlist! |url=https://womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/features/features/news/announcing-the-womens-prize-2022-longlist |access-date=8 March 2022 |website=Women's Prize for Fiction}} In 2022 it was named by The Guardian as one of the best books of the year.{{cite news |last1=Jordan |first1=Justine |title=Best fiction of 2022 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/dec/03/best-fiction-of-2022 |access-date=4 December 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=3 December 2022}}

In October 2022, her seventh novel, The Axeman's Carnival, was published. Set in Central Otago, the novel tells the story of the relationship of a farming couple and is narrated by a magpie called Tama.{{cite news |last1=Cook |first1=Marjorie |title=High country life through a magpie's eyes |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/high-country-life-through-magpie%E2%80%99s-eyes |access-date=4 December 2022 |work=Otago Daily Times |date=12 November 2022}} Chidgey drew from her husband's family's farming experiences in writing the novel.{{cite news |last1=King |first1=Rachael |title=Book of the Week: Bird of the year |url=https://www.newsroom.co.nz/book-of-the-week-alone-we-are-born |access-date=4 December 2022 |work=Newsroom |date=20 October 2022}} Rachael King, reviewing the book for Newsroom, described it as "remarkable, brilliant, a classic in the making", with Tama's voice providing "dark poetry, dramatic irony, startling wisdom and trickster delights". The book was second on the list of New Zealand fiction bestsellers in 2023,{{cite news |last1=Braunias |first1=Steve |title=Bestselling books of 2023 |url=https://newsroom.co.nz/2023/12/22/the-bestselling-books-of-2023/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Newsroom |date=22 December 2023}} and won New Zealand's top book award, the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.{{cite news |title=Catherine Chidgey wins major prize at 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/490114/catherine-chidgey-wins-major-prize-at-2023-ockham-new-zealand-book-awards |access-date=18 May 2023 |work=Radio New Zealand |date=17 May 2023 |language=en-nz}}

In 2023, her eighth novel, Pet, a thriller about the relationship between a 12-year-old girl and her schoolteacher, was published in New Zealand, the UK and the United States.{{Cite web |date=2023-07-04 |title=Books of the month, from Colson Whitehead to Selina Mills |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/books-july-review-colson-whitehead-crook-manifesto-serena-mills-b2365716.html |access-date=2023-08-14 |website=The Independent |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=Hephzibah |date=2023-07-02 |title=Pet by Catherine Chidgey review – sly psychological thriller |language=en-GB |work=The Observer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/02/pet-by-catherine-chidgey-review-sly-psychological-thriller |access-date=2023-08-14 |issn=0029-7712}}{{Cite news |last=Allfree |first=Claire |date=2023-07-10 |title=The sinister, slow-burn downfall of a teacher's pet |language=en-GB |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/review-pet-catherine-chidgey/ |access-date=2023-08-14 |issn=0307-1235}} Ruth Franklin in The New York Times called it a "lingering, haunting book", and "a landmark in the small but potent canon of contemporary novels about unusual girls reckoning with themselves and the world around them".{{Cite news |last=Franklin |first=Ruth |date=2023-08-06 |title=When the Favor of a Beloved Schoolteacher Turns Sinister |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/06/books/review/catherine-chidgey-pet.html |access-date=2023-08-14 |issn=0362-4331}} It was the fifth best-selling fiction book in New Zealand in 2023. Along with The Axeman's Carnival, it was long-listed for the 2024 International Dublin Literary Award.{{cite news |last1=Shapiro |first1=Josie |title=Catherine Chidgey's The Book of Guilt 'a potential book of the year' |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/books/catherine-chidgey-s-the-book-of-guilt-a-potential-book-of-the-year |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Radio New Zealand |date=9 May 2025 |language=en-nz}}

Her ninth novel, The Book of Guilt, was published in 2025.{{cite news |last=Mabey |first=Claire |date=2025-05-08 |url=https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/08-05-2025/the-book-of-the-year-the-book-of-guilt-by-catherine-chidgey-reviewed |title=An alarm bell: The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey, reviewed |work=The Spinoff}} Set in an alternative dystopian version of 1970s England, the novel is primarily narrated by one of three identical triplets raised in a children's home. Claire Mabey in The Spinoff described the novel as asking the reader to question "what it means to be alive in a human body that can learn, dream and think for itself", while grappling with contemporary political themes of dehumanisation and morality.{{cite news |last1=Mabey |first1=Claire |title=An alarm bell: The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey, reviewed |url=https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/08-05-2025/the-book-of-the-year-the-book-of-guilt-by-catherine-chidgey-reviewed |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=The Spinoff |date=8 May 2025 |language=en}} The Guardian described it as a "compulsively readable story that raises profound questions", although noted that it would inevitably be compared to Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.{{cite news |last1=Clark |first1=Clare |title=The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey review – this dystopia could have been extraordinary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/may/21/the-book-of-guilt-by-catherine-chidgey-review-this-dystopia-could-have-been-extraordinary |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=21 May 2025}}

{{As of|2022}}, Chidgey is a senior lecturer of creative writing at the University of Waikato and has also taught at the Manukau Institute of Technology.{{cite web|title=Top writer joins Waikato |url=https://www.waikato.ac.nz/news-opinion/media/2018/top-writer-joins-waikato |access-date=12 December 2021 |website=University of Waikato |date=16 January 2018}}{{cite web|title=Caws and claws: two new fiction books from Catherine Chidgey |url=https://www.waikato.ac.nz/news-opinion/media/2022/caws-and-claws-two-new-fiction-books-from-catherine-chidgey |access-date=4 December 2022 |website=University of Waikato |date=28 October 2022}} In her role at Waikato she founded the Sargeson Prize, New Zealand's richest short story competition.

Chidgey has translated more than a dozen children's picture books from the German for Gecko Press. In November 2019, OneTree House published her first original picture book, Jiffy, Cat Detective, illustrated by Astrid Matijasevich.{{Cite web|url=https://www.onetree-house.com/product-page/jiffy-cat-detective-catherine-chidgey-astrid-matijasevich|title = Jiffy, Cat Detective – Catherine Chidgey / Astrid Matijasevich}} A follow-up, Jiffy's Greatest Hits, was published in 2022.

• 1997 Adam Foundation Prize for In a Fishbone Church
• 1998 Todd New Writer's Bursary
• 1998 Sargeson Fellowship
• 1999 Betty Trask Award for In a Fishbone Church
• 1999 Best First Book, Commonwealth Writers' Prize (South East Asia and Pacific Region) for In a Fishbone Church
• 2001 Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship to Menton, France
• 2002 Prize in Modern Letters
• 2003 Writer in Residence, University of Canterbury
• 2005-6 Robert Burns Fellow, University of Otago
• 2008 Rathcoola Residency, County Cork, Ireland
• 2009 Writer in Residence, University of Waikato
• 2010 University of Otago Wallace Residency, The Pah Homestead, Auckland
• 2012 New Zealand Society of Authors Beatson Fellowship
• 2013 Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award for 'Reverse Living'
• 2017 Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for The Wish Child
• 2017 Janet Frame Fiction Prize{{Cite web|last=Wellington|first=Victoria University of|date=3 May 2018|title=Catherine Chidgey wins Janet Frame Fiction Prize {{!}} News {{!}} Victoria University of Wellington|url=https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/news/2017/07/catherine-chidgey-wins-janet-frame-fiction-prize|access-date=20 January 2021|website=www.wgtn.ac.nz|language=en}}
• 2018 International Dublin Literary Award (longlisted) for The Wish Child{{Cite web|title=2018 Printable Longlist – International DUBLIN Literary Award|url=https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/news/2018-printable-longlist/|access-date=20 January 2021|language=en-US|archive-date=1 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220701041824/https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/news/2018-printable-longlist/|url-status=dead}}
• 2022 Women's Prize for Fiction (longlisted) for Remote Sympathy
• 2022 International Dublin Literary Award (shortlisted) for Remote Sympathy
• 2023 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for The Axeman's Carnival
• 2024 International Dublin Literary Award (longlisted) for The Axeman's Carnival and Pet{{Cite web |date=2024-01-19 |title=ANZ authors among 2024 Dublin Literary Award longlistees |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2024/01/19/245630/anz-authors-among-2024-dublin-literary-award-longlistees/ |access-date=2024-01-27 |publisher=Books+Publishing}}

{{portal|Novels}}

• New Zealand literature

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.read-nz.org/writer/chidgey-catherine/ Read NZ Te Pou Muramura profile]
• [https://www.waikato.ac.nz/staff-profiles/people/cchidgey University of Waikato profile]
• {{Twitter|id=CathChidgey}}

{{Robert Burns Fellowship}}

{{Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellows}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chidgey, Catherine}}

Category:1970 births

Category:Living people

Category:New Zealand women novelists

Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni

Category:20th-century New Zealand novelists

Category:21st-century New Zealand novelists

Category:20th-century New Zealand women writers

Category:21st-century New Zealand women writers

Category:Writers from Auckland

Category:People educated at Sacred Heart College, Lower Hutt