Laura Solomon

Laura Solomon (28 June 1974 - 18 February 2019) was a New Zealand / British novelist, playwright and poet. Best known as a novelist, her poetry and short stories have also been widely published and short listed for awards and prizes.

Laura Solomon
Laura Solomon in London, England
BornLaura Jane Solomon
(1974-06-28)28 June 1974
Auckland
Died18 February 2019(2019-02-18) (aged 44)
OccupationShort-story writer, novelist, poet, playwright
NationalityBritish/New Zealand
GenreShort story, novel, poetry, play
Notable worksAlternative Medicine
Instant Messages
Black Light
Nothing Lasting
"An Imitation of Life"
"Taking Wainui"
"In Vitro"
Notable awardsBridport Prize
2004
Bridport Prize
2005
Proverse Prize
2009

Life

Solomon was born in Auckland on 28 June 1974. She grew up in various parts of New Zealand , including Raetihi and Nelson

She graduated from Nayland College, Nelson, in 1991 and later attended the University of Otago in Dunedin where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree and wrote her first novel Black Light.

She moved to Wellington in 1996 to do her Honours degree in English at Victoria University of Wellington. and to write her second novel Nothing Lasting.

After graduating from Victoria, Solomon left New Zealand and lived abroad in London, where she wrote An Imitation of Life and Alternative Medicine. Solomon completed an MSc in Computer Science at Birkbeck College at the University of London in 2003.[1]

She travelled internationally for her work in IT, including working in Norway for FAST Search and Transfer, now owned by Microsoft.

She returned to New Zealand to live in Nelson in 2007 where she continued to write full-time.

Solomon died on 18 February 2019.[2]

Literary output

Solomon wrote poetry and fiction from her teens. As a young woman in Wellington, she wrote for theatre. Her play The Dummy Bride was produced at the Wellington Fringe Festival in 1996.

At the age of 21, Solomon's first two novels — Black Light (1996) and Nothing Lasting (1997) — were accepted by Auckland publisher Tandem Press.

She emerged as part of a new wave of young New Zealand writers in the 1990s anthologised in Mark Pirie’s The NeXt Wave (1998). She continued writing while living overseas in the UK and had a play Sprout produced at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005. She took a break from publishing her work but returned to writing and book publishing in Nelson from 2007.

Her recent fiction has been published overseas in Hong Kong and Britain (Alternative Medicine [short stories] and An Imitation of Life [novel]) and her poetry has been widely published in New Zealand and internationally in magazines and online sites. She has won prizes in Bridport, Edwin Morgan, Ware Poets, Willesden Herald, Mere Literary Festival, and Essex Poetry Festival competitions.

In 2009, her novella, Instant Messages, won the inaugural international Proverse Prize and was short-listed for the Virginia Prize in the UK. In 2011, her debut collection of poetry In Vitro appeared from HeadworX in Wellington, New Zealand.

She has since published further fiction (Hilary and David, University Days (a sequel to Instant Messages), Vera Magpie, and a short story collection, The Shingle Bar Sea Monster and Other Stories). A revised edition of An Imitation of Life was published by Proverse in 2013.

The second edition of In Vitro and a further collection of Solomon’s poetry, Frida Kahlo’s Cry and Other Poems have also been published by Proverse (2014 and 2015 respectively).

Her play, Brain Graft was published by Proverse in 2017.

Her books published by Proverse are available internationally in print form and have also been published as Ebooks.

Solomon judged the Sentinel Quarterly Short Story Competition in the UK.

Publications by Laura Solomon

Fiction

  • Black Light (North Shore City, N.Z.: Tandem Press, 1996)
  • Nothing Lasting (North Shore City, N.Z.: Tandem Press, 1997)
  • Alternative Medicine (UK: Flame Books, 2008)
  • An Imitation of Life (UK: Solidus, 2010)
  • Instant Messages (Hong Kong: Proverse Publishing, 2010)
  • Hilary and David (Hong Kong: Proverse Publishing, 2011)
  • The Shingle Bar Sea Monster and Other Stories (Hong Kong: Proverse Publishing, 2012)
  • An Imitation of Life, 2nd revsd ed. (Hong Kong: Proverse Publishing, 2013)
  • Vera Magpie (Hong Kong: Proverse Publishing, 2013)
  • University Days (Hong Kong: Proverse Publishing, 2014)
  • Taking Wainui (India: Woven Words Publishers, 2017)

Poetry

  • In Vitro (Wellington: HeadworX Publishers, 2011)
  • In Vitro (Hong Kong: Proverse Publishing, 2014, 2nd edition)
  • Frida Kahlo’s Cry and Other Poems (Hong Kong: Proverse Publishing, 2015)

Drama

  • Brain Graft (Hong Kong: Proverse Publishing, 2017)

References
  1. "Laura Solomon - New Zealand Writer". Laura Solomon. 2 December 2016. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  2. "Laura SOLOMON Death Notice - Nelson, Nelson | Nelson Mail". Nelson Mail. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
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