NEWS RELEASE
29th October 2003
For Immediate Release
Debut Author Blooms
Debut writer Kelly Ana Morey has been awarded the $20,000 Todd New Writers' Bursary for 2003. The award allows a
promising new writer to work for six months full time on an approved project.
Her first novel Bloom was published in September this year by Penguin Books. Bloom is a novel that spans three
generation of Spry women. Covering half a century Bloom explores the nature of forgetting, family, addiction and guilt.
Kelly Ana is of Pakeha and Ngati Kuri descent and was born in 1968. An art historian by trade she studied creative
writing at the Auckland University taught by Witi Ihimaera and Albert Wendt. She currently lives North of Auckland where
she is working on her second novel Grace is Gone. Kelly Ana says of her win 'Being awarded the Todd is a wonderful
affirmation of my writing and desire to tell distinctly New Zealand stories.'
The Todd New Writers' Bursary is awarded each year by the Arts Board of Creative New Zealand from writers who apply to
the July project funding round of Creative New Zealand. The $20,000 bursary is co-funded by the Todd Trust and Creative
New Zealand, with each partner contributing $10,000. It has been in existence since 1990 and authors such as Rebekah
Palmer, Catherine Chidgey and Emily Perkins have benefited from it.
"This is a further confirmation that Kelly Ana Morey is one of New Zealand's most outstanding younger writers and is
someone to watch for the future. She's a star of the future. Kelly's first novel Bloom, has been an outstanding success.
Her next novel, Grace is Gone, due for publication by Penguin in late 2004, is even better' says Penguin Books
Publishing Director, Geoff Walker.
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