Bibliography: Duncan Sarkies
Fiction
Demolition of the Century (Penguin, 2013)
Two Little Boys (Penguin, 2008)
Stray Thoughts and Nosebleeds (Short stories: Victoria UP, 1999)
Duncan Sarkies
ANZL Member
Duncan Sarkies is an award-winning novelist, playwright and screenwriter. His work, heralded by critics for its originality, is best known for its eccentric plots and darkly comic portrayals of ‘the outsider’ and the disturbed.
Duncan’s career has been varied, and includes writing the episode, New Fans, for Flight of the Conchords, several plays, a short story collection and two novels. Linda Herrick of the Weekend Herald describes Sarkies’ 2008 novel, Two Little Boys, as: ‘Quick, clever, twisted, acutely funny…This is the most amazing book. It’s dark, wildly funny, vivid, and brilliantly original.’ Two Little Boys, adapted in 2012 for the screen (starring Hamish Blake and Bret McKenzie) was co-written by Duncan and his brother Robert, as was the massively popular Scarfies. Duncan also wrote and contributed to the writing of four episodes of ABC’s show Maximum Choppage that aired in 2015, and script edited for ABC’s Soul Mates. He was the director, writer and co-creator of The Mysterious Secrets of Uncle Bertie’s Botanarium, a fantasy podcast series. The BBC had considered developing it into a seven-episode series. The first series, ultimately released in 2016 through Howl, has 12 episodes.
Duncan was awarded the Sunday Star Times Bruce Mason Playwriting Award (1994), and the Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Best New Zealand for Saving Grace (1995). In 1998, he won the Louis Johnson New Writers’ Bursary, and in 2000 his short story collection, Stray Thoughts and Nosebleeds, won the Best First Book of Fiction Award at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. He was one of two recipients awarded the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship in 2015.
His most recent novel, Demolition of the Century (Penguin, 2013) is a humorous and thoughtful tale of one man’s quest to find his son. The List (UK) writes that ‘Flight of the Conchords fans will take delight in this dark, twisted and idiotically funny novel.’
In 2022 Duncan hosted three online talks with writers Pip Adam, Kirsten McDougall and Rose Lu in the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, where they discussed their craft, life and where they get their ideas from. Also in 2022 Duncan was announced as a recipient of a 2023 residency at the Michael King Writers Centre, Auckland.
Duncan currently lives in Wellington.
Links
Read NZ Te Pou Muramura writer page
Victoria University Press writer page
Penguin Books writer page
NZ Onscreen writer page
Playmarket playwright page
NZ Festival of the Arts interviews with writers Pip Adam, Kirsten McDougall & Rose Lu (March, 2022)
Stuff interview discussing favourite things (March, 2022)
Radio NZ on Duncan’s new graphic novel and radio show Uncle Bertie’s Botanarium with Jemaine Clement (2016)
Stuff.co.nz interview and article (March, 2015)
NZ Listener review of The Demolition of the Century (Aug, 2013)
NZ Listener interview regarding Two Little Boys (Sept, 2012)
'I want you to think about what you would like to see at the heart of your national literature ' - Tina Makereti