[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$fNfXqFHhvgAsYflsqbeqq-XaWxFxcA-gCNGAjY7YYOmE":3,"$f_pLwB6WW9zEFsb-iHHsGKe7mOYVENCKkS7s0ZmlddFg":52},{"author":4,"tags":51},{"author_id":5,"author_name":6,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"bio":9,"short_bio":10,"bio_jsonld":11,"slug":49,"image_url":50},6151,"Keri Hulme","K",26,"In 1985, Keri Hulme won the Booker Prize for her novel The Bone People, one of the most prominent literary awards a writer working in English can receive.\n\nBorn on 9 March 1947 in Christchurch, Hulme attended Aranui High School before building a career as a poet and novelist. She wrote in English and held New Zealand citizenship throughout her life. Alongside the Booker Prize, she received the Robert Burns Fellowship and the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award, recognitions that came at various points across her working life as a writer.\n\nHulme continued to produce work in both poetry and fiction across the decades that followed. She died on 27 December 2021 in Waimate, at the age of 74. The Booker Prize she received in 1985 for The Bone People stands as a concrete marker in her career as a novelist.","In 1985, Keri Hulme won the Booker Prize for her novel The Bone People, one of the most prominent literary awards a writer working in English can receive.",{"@graph":12,"@context":48},[13,25],{"@id":14,"name":6,"@type":15,"sameAs":16,"birthDate":22,"deathDate":23,"description":24},"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q263613","Person",[14,17,18,19,20,21],"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keri_Hulme","https://viaf.org/viaf/61567391/","https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85023621","https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL733502A","https://d-nb.info/gnd/119049848","1947-03-09","2021-12-27","New Zealand writer",{"@type":26,"author":27,"headline":30,"isBasedOn":31,"mainEntity":32,"reviewedBy":33,"articleBody":9,"dateCreated":34,"dateModified":35,"additionalProperty":36,"creativeWorkStatus":47},"Article",{"name":28,"@type":29},"Editorial Team","Organization","Keri Hulme — biography",[14,17,19,20],{"@id":14},{"name":28,"@type":29},"2026-05-24T09:38:37.642331+00:00","2026-05-24T09:45:01.626764+00:00",[37,41,44],{"@type":38,"value":39,"propertyID":40},"PropertyValue","Q263613","wikidata",{"@type":38,"value":42,"propertyID":43},"1.000","factscore",{"@type":38,"value":45,"propertyID":46},"claude-sonnet-4-6-r1","draftModel","AI-drafted, auto-published","https://schema.org","keri-hulme",null,[],{"quotes":53,"pagination":117},[54,62,68,74,80,86,92,99,105,111],{"id":55,"quote_text":56,"author_id":5,"source_id":57,"has_image":58,"author":59,"source":60,"quote_tag":61,"commentary":50},3196562,"I have a grasshopper and haphazard mind y’know, a brain that listens to all sorts of things as well as itself.",6,false,{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":63,"quote_text":64,"author_id":5,"source_id":57,"has_image":58,"author":65,"source":66,"quote_tag":67,"commentary":50},3196556,"Betelgeuse, Achenar. Orion. Aquila. Centre the Cross and you have a steady compass. But there’s no compass for my ever disoriented soul, only ever beckoning ghost lights. In the one sure direction, to the one sure end.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":69,"quote_text":70,"author_id":5,"source_id":57,"has_image":58,"author":71,"source":72,"quote_tag":73,"commentary":50},3196551,"Through poverty, godhunger, the family debacle, I kept a sense of worth. I could limn and paint like no-one else in this human-wounded land: I was worth the while of living. Now my skill is dead. I should be.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":75,"quote_text":76,"author_id":5,"source_id":57,"has_image":58,"author":77,"source":78,"quote_tag":79,"commentary":50},3196542,"There really is no place like home, even when it’s grown a couple of sizes too small...",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":81,"quote_text":82,"author_id":5,"source_id":57,"has_image":58,"author":83,"source":84,"quote_tag":85,"commentary":50},3196537,"It’s the possibility that when you’re dead you might still go on hurting that bothers me.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":87,"quote_text":88,"author_id":5,"source_id":57,"has_image":58,"author":89,"source":90,"quote_tag":91,"commentary":50},3196532,"Wars of small kingdoms and forgotten lands, what do chessmen dream of in the dark?",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":93,"quote_text":94,"author_id":5,"source_id":57,"has_image":58,"author":95,"source":96,"quote_tag":97,"commentary":98},3196529,"The company you keep at death is, of all things, most dependent on chance.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],"**The Backstory**\nThis poignant reflection is from Keri Hulme's Booker Prize-winning novel, \"The Bone People\" (1984). Set in 1950s New Zealand, the book explores themes of identity, community, and redemption through the interconnected lives of its characters. As a biographer, I've noted that this quote resonates with Hulme's own experiences growing up Māori in a predominantly Pākehā society.\n\n**The Hidden Insight**\nOn the surface, this statement seems to highlight the randomness of circumstance in shaping our relationships and legacies at death. However, upon closer examination, it reveals a deeper paradox: that our choices about who we surround ourselves with during life are, in fact, contingent on chance encounters and serendipitous connections. This challenges the conventional notion that our social networks are the result of deliberate design.\n\n**How to Use This**\nIn today's fast-paced professional landscape, embracing this insight can encourage a mindset shift towards valuing serendipity and allowing for unplanned interactions. By intentionally seeking out diverse social contexts and being open to unexpected connections, individuals can foster richer relationships that may ultimately shape their legacies in meaningful ways.",{"id":100,"quote_text":101,"author_id":5,"source_id":57,"has_image":58,"author":102,"source":103,"quote_tag":104,"commentary":50},3196514,"Why? is the boy’s motto, why does, why is, why not? Food, weather, time, fires, sea and season, clothes and cars and people; it’s all grist to the mill of why.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":106,"quote_text":107,"author_id":5,"source_id":57,"has_image":58,"author":108,"source":109,"quote_tag":110,"commentary":50},3196510,"I have faced Death. I have been caught in the wild weed tangles of Her hair, seen the gleam of her jade eyes. I will go when it is time – no choice! – but now I want life.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":112,"quote_text":113,"author_id":5,"source_id":57,"has_image":58,"author":114,"source":115,"quote_tag":116,"commentary":50},3196500,"I am in limbo, and in limbo there are no races, no prizes, no changes, no chances. There are merely degrees of endurance, and endurance never was my strong point.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"currentPage":118,"totalPages":119,"totalItems":8,"itemsPerPage":120},1,3,10]