Dianne Ruth Pettis Explained

Dianne Ruth Pettis
Birth Date:	1955
Birth Place:	Waipawa, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Death Date:	13 May 2008
Death Place:	Otago Peninsula
Nationality:	New Zealander
Genre:	fiction, journalist
Notableworks:	‘’Like Small Bones’’, The First Touch of Light

Dianne Ruth Pettis (1955 – 13 May 2008) was a novelist and journalist from New Zealand.

Background

Pettis was born in Waipawa, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. In addition to her novels, poetry, and short stories, she worked as a journalist, a script writer for the Natural History Unit and a communications manager.^[1]

Works

Novels

• Like Small Bones (2004)
• The First Touch of Light (2009)

Poetry

Pettis' poetry and short fiction have been included in Landfall, Sport and Takahe, and broadcast on Radio New Zealand. Her work was also included in:

• Under Flagstaff: and Anthology of Dunedin Poetry (2004), edited by Robin Law
• Swings and Roundabouts (2008), edited by Emma Neale

Awards

Like Small Bones, was shortlisted for the Best First Book section in the Asia Pacific region for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.^[2] In 2006 she was awarded the Robert Burns Fellowship, a literary residency at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.^[3]

Notes and References

1. News: Obituary — Dianne Ruth Pettis. 1 December 2008. New Zealand Books Pukapuka Aotearoa. 31 October 2017. en-US.
2. News: Ruth Pettis. Penguin Books New Zealand. 31 October 2017. en.
3. Web site: The Robert Burns Fellowship, Otago Fellows, University of Otago, New Zealand. Zealand. Otago Fellows, University of Otago, New. www.otago.ac.nz. en-nz. 31 October 2017. 10 February 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130210171924/http://www.otago.ac.nz/otagofellows/allprevious_burns.html. dead.