Tessa Duder giving a talk in Devonport Library, Auckland, 2024.
Tessa DuderCNZMOBE (née Staveley, born 13 November 1940) is a New Zealand author of novels for young people, short stories, plays and non-fiction, and a former swimmer who won a silver medal for her country at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. As a writer, she is primarily known for her Alex quartet and long-term advocacy for New Zealand children's literature. As an editor, she has also published a number of anthologies. In 2020 she received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in acknowledgement of her significant contributions to New Zealand fiction.
Early life and family
Duder was born Tessa Staveley in Auckland on 13 November 1940, the daughter of John Staveley, a doctor and pioneer of blood transfusion in New Zealand who was later knighted, and Elvira Staveley (née Wycherley), a cellist.[1][2] Her great-grandparents were from Livorno, Italy. She was educated at the Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland, and went on to study at Auckland University College in 1958, later returning to the University of Auckland between 1982 and 1984.[1]
After leaving school, Staveley worked as a journalist for the Auckland Star from 1959 to 1964, before travelling to Europe and working for the Daily Express in London between 1964 and 1966.[1] She married John Duder in 1964, and the couple went on to have four daughters.[1] Following the birth of her first child, Duder was a full-time mother for seven years, much of it spent in Pakistan. She returned to Auckland in 1972, where she reentered the workforce as a pianist.[3][4]
Swimming
As a teenager, Staveley competed in the butterfly and medley swimming events, becoming a national record holder in both events during 1958–59. She won the New Zealand national 110 yards butterfly title in 1957 and 1958, and the national individual medley championship in 1957, 1958, and 1959.[5]
Staveley was named New Zealand Swimmer of the Year in 1959.[8]
Writing
Duder began writing fiction in 1977. Her first novel Night Race to Kawau was published by Oxford University Press in 1982. Her most successful works are the Alex quartet of novels (Alex, Alex in Winter, Alessandra: Alex in Rome and Songs for Alex) which build upon her own childhood experiences by following a teenage competitive swimmer with Olympic ambitions. The series won three New Zealand Children's Book of the Year awards and three Esther Glen medals. Alex has been translated into five languages and was for many years Penguin New Zealand's best selling work of fiction. Alex was adapted into the 1993 film of the same name.[9][10]
Duder's later work has been varied, including plays, anthologies and biographies. The Tiggie Tompson Show won the 2000 New Zealand Post Senior Fiction Award for young adult fiction. Her first work for adults, a short story collection Is She Still Alive? reached number two on New Zealand bestseller lists in 2008.[9]
Duder is a past president of the NZ Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc). In 1990, she was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.[1] She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1994 New Year Honours, for services to literature,[11] and has been awarded the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal. She is a trustee of the Storylines Children's Literature Charitable Trust of New Zealand, and a former trustee of the Spirit of Adventure Trust which operates the tall ship Spirit of New Zealand. In 1991, she was the University of Waikato's first writer-in-residence.[12] In 2003, she won the Katherine Mansfield fellowship to work for a year in Menton, France, and in 2007 she travelled to Antarctica under the Artists to Antarctica programme. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Waikato in 2009.[13] In 2013, she participated in the first Tall Ships Regatta from Sydney to Auckland, sailing aboard Spirit of New Zealand for the eight-day race crossing from Sydney to Opua.
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