Caren Wilton

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wilton, Caren (1963 -) writes fiction and travel journalism.

Caren Wilton was born in Masterton and moved to Wellington in 1980. She completed a BA in Linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington. She is also a graduate of creative writing programmes at both Victoria University of Wellington and Whitireia Polytechnic. Professionally she has worked as a cook, freelance writer, editor, and publications manager.

Wilton’s stories and poems have appeared in the NZ Listener, Sport, Landfall, Takahe, Printout, and the School Journal. She had a poem anthologised in Mutes & Earthquakes (1997). Her stories have also been broadcast on National Radio.

Caren Wilton’s work has been described as emotionally insightful and often funny. She is a writer who is comfortable with big issues, and writes about sexuality, cultural conflict, loss of love, and the death of a parent.

Wilton’s first collection of short stories, The Heart Sutra, was published in 2003. Kate Camp described the collection as filled with ‘page-turning stories whose characters always ring true. An off-centre look at the numb and confused but occasionally lyrically heart’. In the NZ Listener, Christine Cole Catley described Wilton’s writing as ‘sharply observant, accepting even when she is skewering her characters’. In the Dominion Post Kate Murray writes that the book is an emotive, memorable collection of fast-paced stories.’

In 1999 Wilton was the recipient of a Creative New Zealand Grant, and in 2000 she was runner up in the Vintage Scholarship. Caren Wilton lives in Wellington.

Caren Wilton participated in the 2004 Book Council WOW (Words on Wheels) tour of the deep South.

Caren Wilton was the recipient of three New Zealand Oral History Awards for her series of interviews with sex workers (on which My Body, My Business – New Zealand sex workers in an era of change is based).