Eleanor Catton

(b. 1985) – the youngest laureate of the Booker Prize in history. She was born in London, Canada. When she was 6, her family moved to New Zealand. She debuted with a novel The Rehearsal, which was written as her master's thesis. At the age of 28, she published The Luminaries – a novel about a gold rush that occurred in New Zealand in the 1860s. This book brought her one of the most important literary awards in 2013. The author admits that she grapples with the problem of her identity as a "New Zealand writer"; in 2015, she caused a scandal during a literary festival in India by accusing New Zealand political elites of greed and lack of interest in culture. She lives with her husband-poet Steven Toussaint in Auckland and teaches creative writing classes in the Manukau Institute of Technology.

fot. Robert Catton