Patricia Frances Grace

Patricia Grace is a New Zealand novelist, short story writer and children’s writer. She is of Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa and Te Āti Awa descent, and is affiliated to Ngāti Porou by marriage.

Her first book, Waiariki (1975), was the first short story collection by a Māori woman writer, won the PEN/Hubert Church Award for Best First Book of Fiction. Her first novel, Mutuwhenua: The Moon Sleeps (1978), tells the story of the love and marriage of a young Māori woman and Pakeha man, the first time this had been done from the Māori perspective and by a Māori writer.

Over the course of decades, she has written novels, short story collections, books for children, and Māori language readers. Her novel Potiki won the New Zealand Book Award in 1986 and has been translated into many languages.

She has since won many national and international awards, including the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize for fiction, the Deutz Medal for Fiction, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

Her autobiography, From the Centre: a writer's life, was published in 2021.