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Sue

Wootton

Sue Wootton 300dpi BW

Sue Wootton’s Biography

Last Updated:
31/01/2023, 9:21 am
Discipline:
Poet & Fiction Writer
Awards:
Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship 2019
Highlight:
“I still remember reading Katherine Mansfield’s Bliss when I was a teenager, and being knocked sideways by what she could do with a sentence. Forty years on, and I am deeply honoured to have the opportunity to live and write for three months in Menton, France, as the 2020 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellow. My main project while I’m there will be writing poetry towards a new collection whose working title is Systems of Light. I have the wonderful feeling that the chance to immerse myself in a completely different place and language will generate, to use Katherine Mansfield’s phrase, a whole new “shower of sparks”. - Sue Wootton

A former physiotherapist and acupuncturist, Sue writes about all kinds of things but has a particular interest in the intersection of medicine and the humanities. She holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing (Massey University), and is a PhD student at the University of Otago, where she is researching how literary writing contributes to the understanding of health and wellbeing.

Sue co-edits the Medical Humanities e-magazine Corpus: Conversations about Medicine and Life, and teaches creative writing in schools, universities and community settings. Sue grew up in Whanganui and Wellington and now lives in Dunedin.

Her fiction and poetry is widely published and anthologised in New Zealand and internationally. Some of her work has been translated into Hungarian, Romanian, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Sue's most recent publications are her novel, Strip, which was longlisted in the 2017 Ockham NZ Book Awards, and her fifth poetry collection, The Yield, which was a finalist in these awards in 2018. Sue is currently writing a novel about a group of friends caught up in the 1948 polio epidemic, and plans to use her time in Menton to write new poetry.

Milestones & Awards