The Most Famous
WRITERS from New Zealand
This page contains a list of the greatest New Zealander Writers. The pantheon dataset contains 7,302 Writers, 9 of which were born in New Zealand. This makes New Zealand the birth place of the 65th most number of Writers behind Indonesia, and South Korea.
Top 10
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary New Zealander Writers of all time. This list of famous New Zealander Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of New Zealander Writers.
1. Katherine Mansfield (1888 - 1923)
With an HPI of 63.60, Katherine Mansfield is the most famous New Zealander Writer. Her biography has been translated into 51 different languages on wikipedia.
Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer and critic who was an important figure in the modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world and have been published in 25 languages. Born and raised in a house on Tinakori Road in the Wellington suburb of Thorndon, Mansfield was the third child in the Beauchamp family. She began school in Karori with her sisters before attending Wellington Girls' College. The Beauchamp girls later switched to the elite Fitzherbert Terrace School, where Mansfield became friends with Maata Mahupuku, who became a muse for early work and with whom she is believed to have had a passionate relationship. Mansfield wrote short stories and poetry under a variation of her own name, Katherine Mansfield, which explored anxiety, sexuality and existentialism alongside a developing New Zealand identity. When she was 19, she left New Zealand and settled in England, where she became a friend of D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Lady Ottoline Morrell and others in the orbit of the Bloomsbury Group. Mansfield was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis in 1917, and she died in France aged 34.
2. Richard Curtis (b. 1956)
With an HPI of 51.35, Richard Curtis is the 2nd most famous New Zealander Writer. His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis (born 8 November 1956) is a British screenwriter, producer and director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known primarily for romantic comedy films, among them Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Love Actually (2003), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), About Time (2013), and Yesterday (2019). He is also known for the drama War Horse (2011) and for having co-written the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and The Vicar of Dibley. His early career saw him write material for the BBC's Not the Nine O'Clock News and ITV's Spitting Image. In 2007, Curtis received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He is the co-founder, with Sir Lenny Henry, of the British charity Comic Relief, which has raised over £1 billion. At the 2008 Britannia Awards, he received the BAFTA Humanitarian Award for co-creating Comic Relief and for his contributions to other charitable causes. Curtis was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest figures in British comedy in 2003. In 2008, he was ranked number 12 in a list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture" compiled by The Telegraph. In 2012, he was one of the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork—the cover of The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
3. Janet Frame (1924 - 2004)
With an HPI of 50.73, Janet Frame is the 3rd most famous New Zealander Writer. Her biography has been translated into 24 different languages.
Janet Paterson Frame (28 August 1924 – 29 January 2004) was a New Zealand author. She is internationally renowned for her work, which includes novels, short stories, poetry, juvenile fiction, and an autobiography, and received numerous awards including being appointed to the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civil honour. Frame's celebrity derived from her dramatic personal history as well as her literary career. Following years of psychiatric hospitalisation, Frame was scheduled for a lobotomy that was cancelled when, just days before the procedure, her debut publication of short stories was unexpectedly awarded a national literary prize. Many of her novels and short stories explore her childhood and psychiatric hospitalisation from a fictional perspective, and her award-winning three-volume autobiography was adapted into the film An Angel at My Table (1990), directed by Jane Campion.
4. Ngaio Marsh (1895 - 1982)
With an HPI of 49.99, Ngaio Marsh is the 4th most famous New Zealander Writer. Her biography has been translated into 28 different languages.
Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh ( NY-oh; 23 April 1895 – 18 February 1982) was a New Zealand writer. As a crime writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Marsh is known as one of the "Queens of Crime", along with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Margery Allingham. She is known primarily for her character Inspector Roderick Alleyn, a gentleman detective who works for the Metropolitan Police (London). The Ngaio Marsh Awards are awarded annually for the best New Zealand mystery, crime and thriller fiction writing.
5. Hugh Walpole (1884 - 1941)
With an HPI of 45.38, Hugh Walpole is the 5th most famous New Zealander Writer. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.
Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE (13 March 1884 – 1 June 1941) was an English novelist. He was the son of an Anglican clergyman, intended for a career in the church but drawn instead to writing. Among those who encouraged him were the authors Henry James and Arnold Bennett. His skill at scene-setting and vivid plots, as well as his high profile as a lecturer, brought him a large readership in the United Kingdom and North America. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s but has been largely neglected since his death. After his first novel, The Wooden Horse, in 1909, Walpole wrote prolifically, producing at least one book every year. He was a spontaneous story-teller, writing quickly to get all his ideas on paper, seldom revising. His first novel to achieve major success was his third, Mr Perrin and Mr Traill, a tragicomic story of a fatal clash between two schoolmasters. During the First World War he served in the Red Cross on the Russian-Austrian front, and worked in British propaganda in Petrograd and London. In the 1920s and 1930s Walpole was much in demand not only as a novelist but also as a lecturer on literature, making four exceptionally well-paid tours of North America. As a gay man at a time when homosexual practices were illegal for men in Britain, Walpole conducted a succession of intense but discreet relationships with other men, and was for much of his life in search of what he saw as "the perfect friend". He eventually found one, a married policeman, with whom he settled in the English Lake District. Having as a young man eagerly sought the support of established authors, he was in his later years a generous sponsor of many younger writers. He was a patron of the visual arts and bequeathed a substantial legacy of paintings to the Tate Gallery and other British institutions. Walpole's output was large and varied. Between 1909 and 1941 he wrote thirty-six novels, five volumes of short stories, two original plays and three volumes of memoirs. His range included disturbing studies of the macabre, children's stories and historical fiction, most notably his Herries Chronicle series, set in the Lake District. He worked in Hollywood writing scenarios for two Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films in the 1930s, and had a cameo in the 1935 film adaptation of David Copperfield.
6. Margaret Mahy (1936 - 2012)
With an HPI of 45.10, Margaret Mahy is the 6th most famous New Zealander Writer. Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.
Margaret Mahy (21 March 1936 – 23 July 2012) was a New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. Many of her story plots have strong supernatural elements but her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up. She wrote more than 100 picture books, 40 novels and 20 collections of short stories. At her death she was one of thirty writers to win the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her "lasting contribution to children's literature". Mahy won the annual Carnegie Medal twice. It recognises the year's best children's book by a British subject, and she won for both The Haunting (1982) and The Changeover (1984). (As of 2012 just seven writers have won two Carnegies, none three.) She was also a highly commended runner up for Memory (1987). Among her children's books, A Lion in the Meadow and The Seven Chinese Brothers and The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate are considered national classics. Her novels have been translated into Te Reo Māori, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Catalan and Afrikaans. In addition, some stories have been translated into Russian, Chinese and Icelandic. The Margaret Mahy Playground in the Christchurch Central City is named in her honour.
7. Keri Hulme (1947 - 2021)
With an HPI of 43.87, Keri Hulme is the 7th most famous New Zealander Writer. Her biography has been translated into 24 different languages.
Keri Ann Ruhi Hulme (9 March 1947 – 27 December 2021) was a New Zealand novelist, poet and short-story writer. She also wrote under the pen name Kai Tainui. Her novel The Bone People won the Booker Prize in 1985; she was the first New Zealander to win the award, and also the first writer to win the prize for a debut novel. Hulme's writing explores themes of isolation, postcolonial and multicultural identity, and Māori, Celtic, and Norse mythology.
8. Anthony McCarten (b. 1961)
With an HPI of 42.57, Anthony McCarten is the 8th most famous New Zealander Writer. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Anthony McCarten (born 28 April 1961) is a New Zealand writer and filmmaker. He is best known for writing big-budget biopics The Theory of Everything (2014), Darkest Hour (2017), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), The Two Popes (2019), and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022). McCarten has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including twice for Best Adapted Screenplay, for The Theory of Everything and The Two Popes.
9. Ruth Park (1917 - 2010)
With an HPI of 36.27, Ruth Park is the 9th most famous New Zealander Writer. Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Rosina Ruth Lucia Park AM (24 August 1917 – 14 December 2010) was a New Zealand–born Australian author. Her best known works are the novels The Harp in the South (1948) and Playing Beatie Bow (1980), and the children's radio serial The Muddle-Headed Wombat (1951–1970), which also spawned a book series (1962–1982).
10. Philippa Boyens (b. 2000)
With an HPI of 25.79, Philippa Boyens is the 10th most famous New Zealander Writer. Her biography has been translated into 21 different languages.
Philippa Jane Boyens (born 1963) is a New Zealand screenwriter who co-wrote the screenplay for The Lord of the Rings series, King Kong, The Lovely Bones, and the three-part film series The Hobbit.
People
Pantheon has 10 people classified as New Zealander writers born between 1884 and 2000. Of these 10, 3 (30.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living New Zealander writers include Richard Curtis, Anthony McCarten, and Philippa Boyens. The most famous deceased New Zealander writers include Katherine Mansfield, Janet Frame, and Ngaio Marsh. As of April 2024, 1 new New Zealander writers have been added to Pantheon including Anthony McCarten.
Living New Zealander Writers
Go to all Rankings
Richard Curtis
1956 - Present
HPI: 51.35
Anthony McCarten
1961 - Present
HPI: 42.57
Philippa Boyens
2000 - Present
HPI: 25.79
Deceased New Zealander Writers
Go to all RankingsKatherine Mansfield
1888 - 1923
HPI: 63.60
Janet Frame
1924 - 2004
HPI: 50.73
Ngaio Marsh
1895 - 1982
HPI: 49.99
Hugh Walpole
1884 - 1941
HPI: 45.38
Margaret Mahy
1936 - 2012
HPI: 45.10
Keri Hulme
1947 - 2021
HPI: 43.87
Ruth Park
1917 - 2010
HPI: 36.27
Newly Added New Zealander Writers (2024)
Go to all RankingsOverlapping Lives
Which Writers were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 7 most globally memorable Writers since 1700.
