Peter Wells began his career in the arts as a filmmaker but is today equally well known as a novelist, short story writer, memoirist, essayist and editor. Although a committed and publicly gay writer, he has long eschewed the tag. Many of his stories, and particularly the autobiography Long Loop Home (2001), deal with issues of sexuality but his subject range is as wide as the genres he has mastered – the ‘fateful diaspora’ of AIDS; love, seduction and obsession; identity and memory; and the mores of Victorian times and of modern day New Zealand. Wells’ work is noted for its lyricism and has been described as ‘theatrical’ and ‘visually vivid’ – qualities attributable, at least in part, to his career in film. He has won the New Zealand and Reed awards for fiction, the Montana New Zealand Biography Award and the Landfall essay competition. Iridescence (2003), Wells’ most recent novel, was a runner-up in the 2004 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

 

 

Also appears in:

Sun 19 Mar, 2.45pm

Embassy Theatre

 

Concession Pass to 15 Writers Upfront sessions of your choice: $150 [FR $140]

 

18 Mar, 11:15am