Janet Frame, born in
Southland[?] and raised in
Oamaru, became one of the pre-eminent
New Zealand writers. Educated at Waitaki Girls' High School and Dunedin Teachers College, she spent much time in London and in North America.
Frank Sargeson encouraged her writing after a period of psychiatric hospitalisation. She served as a Burns fellow at the
University of Otago, and now lives in the Horowhenua.
Family background proved important to her in her early published work Owls Do Cry, and forms the hinterland to her autobiographical trilogy: To the Is-land, An Angel at my Table, and The Envoy from Mirror City.
Other works include:
- The Carpathians
- Daughter Buffalo
- Faces in the Water
- Living in the Maniototo
- Scented Gardens for the Blind