Elizabeth Knox

The novel is about the Ghost of a World War I soldier, and it was inspired by a childhood memory; at age eleven Knox fell from a walnut tree on Anzac Day, and while in the hospital she overheard a conversation between an older man and her father about Passchendaele and life on the Salient in 1917.

Bill Manhire encouraged her to write her novel, and told her he would be more interested in seeing her complete it, than her degree.

Elizabeth Fiona Knox (born 15 February 1959) is a New Zealand writer.

She has authored several novels for both adults and teenagers, autobiographical novellas, and a collection of essays.

In 1983, when Knox was 24, she started a degree in English Literature at Victoria University of Wellington.

A year later, she started work on After Z-Hour in Bill Manhire's Original Composition course at Victoria.

After Z-Hour was published in 1987 by Victoria University Press, and Knox graduated from Victoria University of Wellington the same year.

She was also awarded the ICI Young Writers Bursary award that year.

In 1988 Knox, Fergus Barrowman, Nigel Cox, and Damien Wilkins, with the help of Bill Manhire, Alan Preston and Andrew Mason, co-founded the literary journal Sport.

Knox was one of its editors and has been a frequent contributor to the magazine.

Alongside these novels, Knox also wrote a trilogy of novellas based on her own experiences growing up in Wellington: Paremata (1989), Pomare (1994), and Tawa (1998), later published in the compilation The High Jump: A New Zealand Childhood (2000).

Her second and third novels, Treasure (1992) and Glamour and the Sea (1996), were both set in Wellington; the former was about a religious community while the latter was a mystery novel set in the 1940s.

She was the recipient of the Victoria University of Wellington Writing Fellowship in 1997.

One of her best-known works is The Vintner's Luck (1998), which won several awards, has been published in ten languages, and was made into a film of the same name by Niki Caro in 2009.

Knox is also known for her young adult literary fantasy series, Dreamhunter Duet.

Knox's fourth full-length novel, The Vintner's Luck, was published in 1998, and was her first book to be published outside New Zealand.

It chronicles the life of a peasant winemaker, Sobran Jodeau, and his relationship with the fallen angel Xas.

After the success of The Vintner's Luck, and spending part of 1999 in Menton, France as the recipient of the Meridian Energy Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, three novels by Knox were published in quick succession: Black Oxen (2001), Billie's Kiss (2002), and Daylight (2003).

Daylight, a novel about vampires created by a virus, received praise from reviewers and did well overseas.

Academic Erin Mercer notes that the novel reflects international Gothic and supernatural literary traditions as well as New Zealand fiction's more realistic approach.

In 2002, Knox was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2002 Queen's Birthday and Golden Jubilee Honours, for services to literature.

Knox's first young adult books, Dreamhunter and Dreamquake, were published in 2005 and 2007 respectively, as the Dreamhunter Duet series.

Jolisa Gracewood, reviewing Dreamquake, described the book as a "Mansfield-meets-Mahy fantasy" and praised Knox for her audacious imagination and ingeniously constructed tales.

In 2008, she published a collection of non-fiction, The Love School: Personal Essays, which was shortlisted in the 2009 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

In 2009 the film adaptation of The Vintner's Luck directed and co-written by Niki Caro was released.

Her most recent novels are Mortal Fire and Wake, both published in 2013, and The Absolute Book, published in 2019.

Knox was born in Wellington, New Zealand.

She and her two sisters were raised by atheist parents in a household where religion was often debated.

They spent their childhood living in various small suburbs of Wellington, including Pomare, Wadestown, Waikanae and Paremata.

She went to high school at Tawa College, and later published a trilogy of novellas that were influenced by her childhood experiences of living in and around Wellington.

Knox enjoyed inventing stories as a child, and was an avid reader, but had difficulties with writing because she was slightly dyslexic.

When she was eleven she created an oral narrative history with her younger sister Sara and its characters and plot evolved based on their input along with the input of their older sister, Mary, and their friend, Carol.

It became an elaborate imaginary world with many characters, intricate plot lines, and involvements.

When she was sixteen, Knox's father overheard a discussion between her, her sisters, and Carol regarding the consequences of a secret treaty set in their imaginary world and remarked that he hoped they were writing this down.

Following this, they all tried "writing stories about, letters between, and poems by their characters" and Knox enjoyed it so much that she decided she would like to be a writer.

Since 2013 a quotation from The Love School has been featured on a concrete plaque forming part of the Wellington Writers Walk, a series of quotations installed along the Wellington waterfront.

It sold over 60,000 copies in New Zealand alone and in 2018, readers of The Spinoff voted it as the best New Zealand novel of the last 50 years.

The novel is set in 19th-century Burgundy, France, and spans 55 years.

It was inspired by a feverish dream experienced by Knox when she had pneumonia.

The Vintner's Luck won Knox widespread critical acclaim and numerous awards, and it raised her profile within New Zealand and overseas.