Resident with his wife Jackie 2013
Owen Marshall graduated with an MA (Hons) from the University of Canterbury. He was later awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters followed by the University appointing him as Associate Professor. He was awarded a CNZM for his Services to Literature. Described as ‘New Zealand’s best prose writer’ his work spans novels, short stories and poetry. He has written or edited more than 30 book. Many of which have been short listed for major awards and his work has been extensively anthologized.
He has been granted numerous awards including the New Zealand Literary Fund Scholarship in Letters; fellowships at Otago and Canterbury universities; the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship in France; the Montana New Zealand Book Awards for Fiction; the Creative New Zealand Writers Fellowship; President of Honour of the New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ); the Antarctica New Zealand Arts Fellow and the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction.
While at Henderson House Owen completed two writing projects resulting in ‘Carnival Sky’ a novel set largely in Alexandra, Penguin (2014), and a collection of poetry ‘The White Clock’, Jason Books (2014). He also spent time researching for his novel ‘The Larnachs ‘ (published 2011). Owen also spoke with secondary school students in Roxburgh, Cromwell and Wanaka; gave public talks to U3A Alexandra and Rotary Alexandra; participated in a combined book club group meeting in Cromwell and was a guest speaker at the ‘Across the Bridge Festival’ at Bannockburn.
Owen has donated sixteen his books to the Henderson House Art Collection.