Sugu Pillay

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pillay, Sugu (1946- ) is a poet and fiction writer.

Sugu Pillay writes poetry and experimental fiction about the experience of being Indian in New Zealand. Born and educated in Malaysia, Pillay came to New Zealand in 1973 to study English. She completed her MA with First Class Honours at Victoria University, and went on to complete an MA in Education at the University of London.

Pillay’s work has appeared in literary journals including Sport, Takahe, JAAM, A Brief Description of the Whole World, Spin, Bravado, Voiceprints, Printout, brief and online journals Trout and Fugacity.

Her first collection of short stories, The Chandrasekhar Limit and Other Stories (The Writers Group) was published in 2002. In a review for New Zealand Books Rebecca J Davies writes, ‘Pillay pulls outside of the narrative itself to investigate all the pernicious and empowering aspects of the exile so fundamental to the immigrant experience.’ Davies goes on to say that The Chandrasekhar is ‘an inspired collection, it pitches the reader, poetry, science, Malaysian cuisine, the Common Blue Butterfly and the alphabet dreams against a discourse on memory, truth, and the nature of the narrative itself. It’s a heady, disorientating and compelling mix.’

After successfully completing a script writing course as part of the Theatre Programme at Victoria University in 2008, Sugu Pillay was admitted into the 2009 MA in Script Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters where she worked on her second stage play. Her first play Serendipity reflected on the Sri Lankan Civil War to raise issues of cultural and national identity and was performed at BATS Theatre in early 2009.

Pillay was the recipient of 2008 EAT (Emerging Artist Trust) Grant and a Creative Communities Grant. She also won second prize in the 2008 PANZ Playwriting competition in the Teen Actors section.

Sugu Pillay lives in Wellington.

WRITERS IN SCHOOLS INFORMATION

Sugu Pillay participates in the Writers in Schools programme. She is available to visit schools anywhere where there is an interest in multicultural writing. She prefers to speak to students aged between 13 and 18 years, and she is happy to discuss the multicultural aspects of her writing, as well as being a poet, fiction writer, and playwright/screenwriter. She is also happy to read from her work. Her preferred class size is 20 students with a maximum class size of 30. Sugu Pillay is able to visit schools in her region.