Gigi Fenster is the author of two novels, both of which were finalists in the New Zealand Book Awards: The Intentions Book (2012), which was longlisted for the Commonwealth Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award, and A Good Winter (2021), which won the Michael Gifkins Prize. She is also the author of Feverish (2018), a work of creative nonfiction. Her work has been published in various literary journals in New Zealand and abroad including Headland, Turbine, Sport, Hue & Cry and the International Literary Quarterly. Gigi has received the Todd Writers’ Bursary, a Michael King Residency and a CLNZ/NZSA Research Grant.
Gigi was a founder member of the Write Where You Are Trust, which provides creative writing teaching to people in prisons. She is currently a board member of the Trust and Chair of the Wellington Branch of Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa, The New Zealand Society of Authors.
A popular speaker, reader, MC, chair and interviewer, Gigi has attended – as recently as 2024 but often over multiple years – various festivals and events nationally such as: the Auckland Writers Festival, the Limmud Festival in both Auckland and Wellington, LitCrawl in Wellington, NZ reader and Writers Festival Wellington, Auckland Ladies’ Litera-tea, Watermark, Ōtaki, and Crime After Crime and Off the Page, Palmerston North. Gigi had also spoken at conferences such as Nonfiction Now, and the LIANZA Conference. Her international presence includes the Jewish Literary Festival, South Africa, and both the Sydney and Melbourne Jewish Writers Festivals, Australia.
Gigi has a PhD in Creative Writing and various law degrees and is a lecturer in creative writing at Massey University. She was recently awarded a 2024 Mātātuhi Foundation grant for an anthology of close readings of New Zealand short stories (co-edited with Paula Morris) to be accompanied by teaching notes and a podcast. Gigi has recently also completed a young adult novel for publication.
Te Herenga Waka University Press writer page
Text Publishing writer page
Read NZ Te Pou Muramura writer file
ANZL review of A Good Winter (April, 2022)
Radio New Zealand interview discussing Feverish (March, 2018)
A Good Winter (Text Publishing, 2021) – Australia and New Zealand
The Intentions Book (Victoria University Press – now called Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2012)
Feverish (Victoria University Press, 2018)
'The thirty-five of us were in the country of dream-merchants, and strange things were bound to happen.' - Anne Kennedy