Earlier this year we interviewed a young New Zealand writer we believed was destined for great things. That writer was Eleanor Catton, the newly crowned Man Booker Prize Winner for 2013. Sit back and enjoy our chat with her, highlights of which were featured recently in the LA Times. The Booktopia Book Guru asks Eleanor Catton Man Booker Prize winning author of The Luminaries Ten Terrifying Que... Read more

At 28, New Zealand’s Eleanor Catton has become the Man Booker Prize’s youngest winner for her extraordinary sophomore novel The Luminaries. Catton was born in 1985 in Canada and raised in New Zealand. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University in 2007 and won the Adam Prize in Creative Writing for The Rehearsal. She was the recipient of the 2008 Glenn Schaeffer F... Read more

The 2013 Man Booker Shortlist has been announced, with an incredibly diverse list and more than a few surprises. Eleanor Catton, 28, is the youngest to make the cut with her book The Luminaries, and has been installed as the early favourite. As a New Zealander, she is now an honorary Australian. Robert Macfarlane, chair of the judges, said the shortlist was “instantly striking” beca... Read more

The Man Booker Prize is usually an event on the calender that doesn’t cause much surprise. In the past it has rewarded established writers and familiar names of the literary elite. But in the last few years, things have changed. The panel has clearly cast their net wider and this year’s list may be the most eclectic in recent memory. From the extraordinary, sweeping The Luminaries t... Read more