Editing New Zealand literature (section)

===Non-fiction===
New Zealand has a significant non-fiction tradition, with natural history, colonisation, Māori/Pākehā relations, childhood and identity being recurring themes.<ref name="NF summary">{{cite web |last1=Calder |first1=Alex |title=Story summary – Story: Non-fiction |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/non-fiction |website=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand |access-date=5 March 2021 |archive-date=19 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210219184705/https://teara.govt.nz/en/non-fiction |url-status=live }}</ref> Important autobiographical works by New Zealand writers include trilogies by Frank Sargeson in the 1970s (''Once is Enough'', ''More than Enough'' and ''Never Enough!''), [[Janet Frame]] in the 1980s (''To the Is-land'', ''An Angel at my Table'' and ''The Envoy from Mirror City''), and [[C. K. Stead]]'s two-part series ''South-west of Eden'' (2010) and ''You Have a Lot to Lose'' (2020).<ref name="Becoming">{{cite web |last1=Calder |first1=Alex |title=Becoming at home – Story: Non-fiction |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/non-fiction/page-4 |website=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand |access-date=5 March 2021 |archive-date=5 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505213809/https://teara.govt.nz/en/non-fiction/page-4 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Simpson |first1=Emily |title=CK Stead: I'm an alien, a book man |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/300022755/ck-stead-im-an-alien-a-book-man |access-date=5 March 2021 |work=[[Stuff (website)|Stuff]] |date=7 June 2020 |archive-date=4 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210404184103/https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/300022755/ck-stead-im-an-alien-a-book-man |url-status=live }}</ref>

Much of New Zealand's significant non-fiction is historical in nature. [[James Belich (historian)|James Belich]] is known for his writing on the [[New Zealand Wars]]. [[Judith Binney]] is known for her biography of [[Te Kooti]], ''Redemption Songs'' (1995) and her history of [[Tūhoe]], ''Encircled Lands'' (2009).<ref name="Questioning">{{cite web |last1=Calder |first1=Alex |title=Questioning orthodoxies – Story: Non-fiction |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/non-fiction/page-6 |website=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand |access-date=5 March 2021 |archive-date=10 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810184946/https://teara.govt.nz/en/non-fiction/page-6 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Linda Tuhiwai Smith]]'s 1999 academic work ''[[Decolonizing Methodologies|Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples]]'' has been an important contribution to Māori and indigenous research.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Prestigious Rutherford Medal awarded to Distinguished Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith |url=https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2023/11/24/prestigious-rutherford-medal-awarded-to-distinguished-professor-linda-tuiwai-smith/ |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=Te Ao Māori News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=MSD |title=Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples |url=https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj17/decolonizing-methodologies-research-and-indigenous-peoples.html |access-date=2023-11-30 |publisher=MSD}}</ref> 

Historian [[Michael King (historian)|Michael King]] began his career writing biographies about notable Māori people, including biographies of [[Te Puea Hērangi]] (1977) and [[Whina Cooper]] (1983). In the mid-1980s, aware of the importance of allowing Māori voices to speak, he wrote about what it meant to be a non-Māori New Zealander in ''Being Pākehā'' (1985), and published biographies of [[Frank Sargeson]] (1995) and [[Janet Frame]] (2000).<ref name="Questioning"/> His ''Penguin History of New Zealand'' was the most popular New Zealand book of 2004 and was named by ''[[The New Zealand Herald]]'' in 2009 as the best book of the preceding decade.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ten years of NZ books |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/ten-years-of-nz-books/M7XLU7CKRSDUFVUI6TV6SCWTTU/ |access-date=5 March 2021 |work= [[The New Zealand Herald]] |date=7 February 2009 |archive-date=1 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210901042330/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/ten-years-of-nz-books/M7XLU7CKRSDUFVUI6TV6SCWTTU/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 

Recent essay collections by Asian New Zealand writers include ''All Who Live on Islands'' (2019) by [[Rose Lu]] and ''Small Bodies of Water'' (2021) by [[Nina Mingya Powles]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|date=31 January 2020|title=Twinned Roots|url=https://landfallreview.com/twinned-roots/|access-date=12 October 2021|website=Landfall Review Online|language=en-NZ}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Woulfe |first1=Catherine |title=An ecstatic review of Nina Mingya Powles’ essay collection |url=https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/26-12-2021/an-ecstatic-review-of-nina-mingya-powles-essay-collection |access-date=29 August 2024 |work=[[The Spinoff]] |date=26 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref>