Christine Leunens
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Christine Leunens | |
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.jpg) Leunens at the Humanitas Awards, 2020 | |
| Born | 29 December 1964 Hartford, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Occupation | novelist |
| Citizenship |
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| Education | Victoria University of Wellington (PhD) Harvard Extension School (ALM) |
| Period | 1999–present |
| Notable works |
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Christine Leunens (born 29 December 1964) is a New Zealand-Belgian novelist. She is the author of several novels including Caging Skies, which was adapted into the film Jojo Rabbit.
Life[edit]
Leunens was born on 29 December 1964 in Hartford, Connecticut, in the United States; her mother was Italian, her father Belgian.[1]
She has a bachelor's degree in French from the University of North Carolina, and an ALM in literature from the Harvard Extension School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2] She moved to New Zealand in 2006, and received a grant from the International Institute of Modern Letters of Victoria University of Wellington to write a novel as part of a PhD; she completed the degree in 2012 with a two-part thesis on Literary Mothers-in-Law.[3]
Literary career[edit]
In 1996 she won a prize for 'best scenario' from the Centre National du Cinéma in Paris.[3] In 1999 her novel Primordial Soup was published. The Sunday Times described it as a "remarkable debut novel",[citation needed] and Publishers Weekly as "kinky, grotesque and very funny" and "not for the faint of heart".[4]
In 2007 she published Caging Skies, a World War II historical novel set in Vienna, which was described by Le Monde as a "beautiful novel, powerful, different, and ambitious" about "love so total that it locks up, isolates and colonises the partner until destruction annihilates the outside world".[5] The French edition was nominated for the Prix Médicis étranger in 2007.[3]
Her third novel, A Can Of Sunshine, written as part of her PhD, was published in 2013.[6][7]
Taika Waititi adapted Caging Skies into the screenplay for the film Jojo Rabbit, which won an Academy Award for 'best adapted screenplay' in 2019,[8] as well as a Humanitas Prize for writing "intended to promote human dignity, meaning and freedom".[9][10]
In 2022 Leunens published In Amber's Wake, a novel "set against the background of the anti-nuclear movement, Springbok Tour and the Rainbow Warrior [bombing]".[11] A film adaptation is being produced by Mimi Polk Gitlin.[12]
Awards and residencies[edit]
- UNESCO City of Literature Prague Writer-in-Residence in 2023[13]
Novels[edit]
- Primordial Soup (1999)
- Caging Skies (2008)
- A Can of Sunshine (2013)
- In Amber's Wake (2022)
References[edit]
- ^ "Leunens, Christine". Read NZ. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ Pierre, Harry (2 January 2020). "Extension School grad now looking toward Oscars". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ a b c "Christine Leunens". International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "Primordial Soup by Christine Leunens". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "Christine Leunens: une prison de peur et d'amour". Le Monde.fr (in French). 22 November 2007. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "Great line-up for Yarns in Barns fest". NZ Herald. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "Christine Leunens : A Can of Sunshine". RNZ. 17 November 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ Results. Beverly Hills, California: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Accessed February 2023.
- ^ Haring, Bruce; Hipes, Patrick (25 January 2020). "Humanitas Prize Awards: 'Jojo Rabbit', 'When They See Us', 'Veep' Among Winners". Deadline. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "'Little Women,' 'Jojo Rabbit,' 'The Two Popes' Land Nominations for USC Scripter Awards". 18 December 2019. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ ""I felt there was something important and relevant to today"". NZ Herald. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "In Amber's Wake: Christine Leunens' new novel". RNZ. 23 February 2022. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "Rezidenční pobyty 2023". Praha město literatury (in Czech). Retrieved 15 February 2023.
External links[edit]
- "Leunens, Christine". New Zealand Book Council.
- Freeman, Lynn (6 August 2017). "Writers Block: Christine Leunens". Arts On Sunday. Radio New Zealand.
- "Caging Skies (Audiobook)". Blackstone Audio.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- International Institute of Modern Letters alumni
- Belgian women novelists
- 21st-century New Zealand novelists
- 21st-century New Zealand women writers
- New Zealand women novelists
- 21st-century Belgian women writers
- Harvard Extension School alumni
- European writers
- Academy Awards
- 1964 births
- Living people
- New Zealand people of Belgian descent
- New Zealand people of Italian descent