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Pettis, Ruth
Writer's File

Ruth Pettis

Deceased
Pettis, Ruth
In brief
Ruth Pettis was a poet and fiction writer. Her first novel, Like Small Bones, was published in 2004. The book spans three generations and is set in the South Island of New Zealand. Pettis also published poetry and short stories in key journals and for broadcast on national radio. The first touch of light is the second of her two novels and it deals with the traumatic impact of WW2. It was published posthumously in 2009.
Bio

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pettis, Ruth (1955 – ) was a fiction writer and poet. She was born in Waipawa in the Hawke’s Bay and worked as journalist, script writer for the Natural History Unit (now known as Natural History New Zealand Ltd), and full-time writer.

Her first novel Like Small Bones (Hazard Press, 2004) was published in 2004 and traces the separate lives of Gerald and Violet, both made vulnerable by harsh childhoods. Set in the South Island, Like Small Bones covers three generations, interweaving stories of loss and grief. Reviewing the novel in New Zealand Books (Dec, 2004), Joan Rosier-Jones writes that ‘Like Small Bones is remarkable; sure-footed and slow-moving, but never sluggish … it is, in effect, an historical novel but the handling is far from traditional as the narrative weaves effortlessly through time and place.’

Like Small Bones was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for a first novel. Ruth Pettis held the Robert Burns Fellowship at Otago University in 2006.

Ruth Pettis is a pseudonym.

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