Carl Nixon
Encyclopedia
Carl Nixon is a New Zealand
novelist, short story writer and playwright. He has written original plays and has adapted Lloyd Jones
’ novel The Book of Fame and J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace. He has won numerous awards for his fiction, including winning and being nominated for key short story competitions. Nixon was the Ursula Bethell/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence at the University of Canterbury
in 2007, where he completed his first novel, Rocking Horse Road. He has also written several plays for children. He writes plays, short fiction and novels. His theatrical works are largely comedies, and humour is an important element of his more serious - even dark - short fiction. He works full-time as a writer.
Born in Christchurch
, Nixon graduated with a Masters degree in Religious Studies from the University of Canterbury. He briefly taught secondary school English before leaving to teach in Japan for two years.
Nixon has won and been shortlisted for numerous awards for his short fiction. He has twice won the Sunday Star Times
Short Story Competition, for 'My Father Running with a Dead Boy' in 1997 and 'Weight' in 1999. He was a runner up in the Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield
Short Story Competition in 1999 and won the premier prize in 2007.
His first collection of short stories, the best-selling Fish 'n' Chip Shop Song (Random, 2006), was short-listed in the Best First Book Southeast Asia and South Pacific Region category in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2007.
In 2007 Nixon was the Ursula Bethell/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence at Canterbury University where he completed his first novel, Rocking Horse Road. Reviewing Rocking Horse Road in North and South magazine in August 2007, Warwick Roger said that 'Nixon writes beautifully. He gets the style and timbre of teenagers just right...Nixon has fulfilled the promise he showed with last year's book of short stories, fish'n'chip shop song.'
Nixon's theatrical scripts include an adaption of Lloyd Jones' novel The Book of Fame and of Nobel Prize winner J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace. Nixon's play, The Raft, was performed as part of the 2007 Christchurch Arts Festival. His plays for children are The Little Mermaid (2000), The Reluctant Dragon
(2000), and Beauty and the Beast (2000). He has also published a novel for young adults, Guardians of Mother Earth (1997).
Nixon lives in Christchurch.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
novelist, short story writer and playwright. He has written original plays and has adapted Lloyd Jones
Lloyd Jones (New Zealand author)
Lloyd Jones is a New Zealand author who currently resides in Wellington. His novel Mister Pip won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker.-Early life and education:...
’ novel The Book of Fame and J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace. He has won numerous awards for his fiction, including winning and being nominated for key short story competitions. Nixon was the Ursula Bethell/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence at the University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury
The University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates its main campus in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand...
in 2007, where he completed his first novel, Rocking Horse Road. He has also written several plays for children. He writes plays, short fiction and novels. His theatrical works are largely comedies, and humour is an important element of his more serious - even dark - short fiction. He works full-time as a writer.
Born in Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, Nixon graduated with a Masters degree in Religious Studies from the University of Canterbury. He briefly taught secondary school English before leaving to teach in Japan for two years.
Nixon has won and been shortlisted for numerous awards for his short fiction. He has twice won the Sunday Star Times
The Sunday Star-Times
The Sunday Star-Times is a New Zealand newspaper published each weekend by the Fairfax group in Auckland. It covers both national and international news, and is a member of the New Zealand Press Association and Newspaper Publishers Association of New Zealand.-History:The Sunday Star-Times was first...
Short Story Competition, for 'My Father Running with a Dead Boy' in 1997 and 'Weight' in 1999. He was a runner up in the Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and...
Short Story Competition in 1999 and won the premier prize in 2007.
His first collection of short stories, the best-selling Fish 'n' Chip Shop Song (Random, 2006), was short-listed in the Best First Book Southeast Asia and South Pacific Region category in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2007.
In 2007 Nixon was the Ursula Bethell/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence at Canterbury University where he completed his first novel, Rocking Horse Road. Reviewing Rocking Horse Road in North and South magazine in August 2007, Warwick Roger said that 'Nixon writes beautifully. He gets the style and timbre of teenagers just right...Nixon has fulfilled the promise he showed with last year's book of short stories, fish'n'chip shop song.'
Nixon's theatrical scripts include an adaption of Lloyd Jones' novel The Book of Fame and of Nobel Prize winner J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace. Nixon's play, The Raft, was performed as part of the 2007 Christchurch Arts Festival. His plays for children are The Little Mermaid (2000), The Reluctant Dragon
The Reluctant Dragon
The Reluctant Dragon is an 1898 children's story by Kenneth Grahame , which served as the key element to the 1941 feature film with the same name from Walt Disney Productions. The story has also been set to music as a children's operetta by John Rutter, with words by David Grant...
(2000), and Beauty and the Beast (2000). He has also published a novel for young adults, Guardians of Mother Earth (1997).
Nixon lives in Christchurch.