TOI GRAD NAMED AS AN ARTS LAUREATE 2011View GalleryHide Gallery

The most lucrative arts awards in the country were announced last week at a glittering ceremony at the Viaduct Events Centre on Auckland’s Waterfront – the Arts Laureate Awards, presented annually by the Arts Foundation. Awards totalling $360,000 were awarded to ten New Zealand artists, including Toi Whakaari graduate and writer Emily Perkins, who graduated from Toi with the acting diploma in 1989.

Currently lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Auckland, she burst onto the scene at the age of just 26 with her first collection of stories, Not her Real Name, which went on to win Best First Book at the Montana Book Awards and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in the UK. She has since written a variety of novels and short fiction, and hosts the book review programme The Good Word on TVNZ7.

Click here for the full story on the Arts Foundation website.