Patricia Frances Grace, DCNZM, QSO, is a notable Māori writer of novels, short stories, and children's books. Her first published work, Waiariki , was the first collection of short stories by a Māori woman writer. She has been described as "a key figure in contemporary world literature and in Maori literature in English". She was awarded the 2008 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Grace currently lives in Hongoeka Bay, Plimmerton. In 2006 she was one of three honourees in the 2006 Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement. Grace was awarded the Distinguished... Companion of The New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours. Grace is a patron of the Coalition for Open Government. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English refers to her prose as distinctive in its "spare style based on the speech structures of Maori English".
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