New Zealand novelist, poet, and short-story writer Keri Hulme has died at age 74.
Hulme's novel, The Bone People, meant she became the first Kiwi recipient of the Man Booker Prize in 1985.
Tributes for her work have been flowing in since news of her passing broke.
Matthew Salmons, her nephew, said her legacy was "profound".
"We are just processing our loss and reminiscing about her thinking about what she has meant to each of us, and as an aunty what her legacy would be for us," he told 1News.
"For us she is an incredibly special person who has been a wonderful part of our lives, a generous person, loving, a family focused person.
"There's been nights we spent listening to her, telling us history about our people, our land, our tipuna, things our family would have lost without her.
"If you were a friend, a family member, she would always show that love and appreciation, but she was never one for wider attention, she wanted life her way."
Writer and University of Auckland associate professor, Paula Morris, said she was a "ground-breaking writer".
"Not just because of the international attention she got but she was a ground-breaking Māori writer, a woman writer, a feminist writer," Morris said.
"She liked to do things her own way, she was ahead of her time in some ways in terms of self publishing when you think about it. When The Bone People came out it was put out by a feminist collective on typewriters, and she was lining hundreds of miles away and didn't have a phone and had to do everything by mail," she said.
Speaking of The Bone People, she said "it's a bit weird, a bit lyrical, post-modern, sometimes difficult, sometimes beautiful, sometimes brutal, it was always her".
"She has been very influential."
Morris spoke of the importance of her winning the Man Booker Prize but said the response from the New Zealand literary community had changed over time.
"I think she was seen as an outsider who had come from nowhere and suddenly carried off this big international prize and there was quite a lot of professional jealously."
Morris said she was also in the process of writing a second novel called 'Bait'.
"A large advance was paid to that - will it come out now? I hope so," she said.
"Nobody really knows if it was finished but I hear rumours of large stacks of manuscripts so it is quite possible we will see that novel at some point."
The original publisher of The Bone People, Marian Evans, of the Spiral Collective, said she "sat up in bed all night and read it and read and read it".
"A number of publishers had refused it for various reasons - they want her to cut it, or it wasn't feminist enough. mostly it was that they wanted to edit it and she didn't want to edit it," she told 1News.
"There are lots of people with brilliant inventive minds but I don't think there are many who are like Keri who are also really beautiful human beings who give and give and give of themselves."
In a statement, the Government paid tribute to "one of the true greats of storytelling".
"Keri Hulme was one of the true greats of storytelling in New Zealand and one of our most celebrated authors," Government Duty Minister David Parker said.
"With themes of love, isolation and unity, The Bone People is a unique and important novel which made a significant contribution to New Zealand literature."
Hulme, who was the eldest of six children, was born in Christchurch in 1947.
She attended North Brighton Primary School and Aranui High School and wrote stories and poems from the age of 12.
Hulme, who worked as a tobacco picker in the Motueka tobacco fields in her early life, went on to win numerous accolades for her books, poems and short stories and held fellowships at several universities.
"Keri Hulme made a huge mark on literature in Aotearoa and leaves an enduring legacy," Parker said.
"Keri Hulme was a talented novelist, poet and short story writer.
"Our condolences go to Keri’s whānau and friends."
With Māori, English and Scottish ancestors, Hulme was strongly connected to her Māori heritage and was of Kāi Tahu and Kāti Māmoe descent.
SHARE ME