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Carl Nixon
Photo Credit: © Stephanie Nixon



Carl Nixon is an award-winning short story writer, novelist and playwright. He has twice won the Sunday Star Times Short Story Competition, and won the Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Short Story Competition in 2007. His first book, Fish ’n’ Chip Shop Song and other stories went to number one on the New Zealand bestselling fiction list, and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book.

Nixon completed his first novel while he was the Ursula Bethell/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence at Canterbury University in 2006. Rocking Horse Road saw him identified as ‘a major talent’ by North & South, and was long-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2009. It has been published in China, France, and Germany and was on several lists for the best crime novels in Germany in 2012. His second novel, Settlers’ Creek, was also long-listed for the Dublin Literary Award. His novel, The Virgin and the Whale is being developed as a feature film by South Pacific Pictures.

His stage plays have been produced in every professional theatre in New Zealand. They include Mathew, Mark, Luke and Joanne, The Birthday Boy and The Raft. He has adapted for the stage Lloyd Jones’s novel The Book of Fame and JM Coetzee’s Disgrace. He was awarded the 2020 Howard McNaughton Prize at the Adam NZ Play Awards, recognising excellence in an unproduced script.

In 2018 Carl Nixon was awarded the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship in France where he worked on The Tally Stick.

See more at www.carlnixon.co.nz/

More features

Article
Why you should read: The Waters

Our Penguin staffers are raving about Carl Nixon's new gripping family saga set over the course of 40 years in New Zealand. Read on for their reviews!

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The Waters Book Club Notes

Unravel Carl Nixon's brilliant story of a fractured family told over 40 years with these book club questions

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Find the perfect gift for dad this Father's Day!

Are you looking for the perfect book to help send your dad on an adventure this Father’s Day? We’ve got a great list of suggestions.

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The Tally Stick book club conversation starters

Carl Nixon shares some discussion points and questions for his new book The Tally Stick in this book club guide.

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Short story club – 24 August

Read the story being discussed onJesse Mulligan’s show on Radio New Zealand on 24 August 2017