Ken Catran
, b. 1944
Ken Catran (born 1944 in Auckland) is a New Zealand children’s novelist and screenwriter. He lives in Waimate in South Canterbury with his wife who is also a writer. Catran started his career as a screenwriter and only in the 1990s started focussing on writing novels. Catran is well- known for his contribution to the TV drama Shortland Street and his scripts for the television miniseries Under the Mountain (1982), an eight episode dramatization of Maurice Gee’s 1979 children’s novel, for the 1993 movie of Tessa Duder’s 1987 novel Alex and for the dramatisation of his own 1987 novel Steelriders (1987).
Catran has written over 30 novels for young adults, mostly sci-fi, fantasy or historical novels. He is particularly noted for the large number of stories he has written about New Zealanders at War, such as his novels about the Moran family. For this reason, he has been called “one of the key figures in this century’s revival of interest in the historical novel.” (Agnew, 2014). Catran’s action-packed plots and lively, colloquial writing style seem to be intended to especially appeal to teenage boys, possibly also reluctant readers.
Catran has won over 30 awards, both for his novels and his television screen writing. In 2007, he received New Zealand’s most prestigious award for children’s writing, the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal, for his distinguished contribution to New Zealand children’s literature and was writer in residence at Waikato University. In 1996, he was writer in residence at the University of Otago. In 2004, Catran was awarded the Ester Glen Award for his contribution to literature at the LIANZA Children’s Book Awards with Jacko Moran: Sniper. His books have been shortlisted numerous times in the New Zealand Post Book Awards and in 2001, Voyage with Jason became book of the year.
Five of Ken Catran’s young adult novels are set in ancient Greece, four of them during or immediately following the Trojan War. All of these novels, except one (Odysseus), tell the story of the war from the view point of a child or young adult.
Sources:
Agnew, Trevor, "New Zealanders at War in novels and picture books", Magpies 29.2 (2014): 3.
Profile in Storylines, 2013 (accessed: March 23, 2020).
New Zealand Book Council (2013) Catran, Ken in: Read NZ Te Pou Muramura (accessed: March 23, 2020).
Bio prepared by Babette Puetz, Victoria University of Wellington, babette.puetz@vuw.ac.nz
Records in database:
