Cafe Wars is the first novel of the artist Barbara Strathdee who lived in Trieste for the many years of her exhibiting career in Italy, Slovenia and New Zealand. Her novel was awarded First Prize for Fiction Scritture di Frontiera, 2006, Italy. Barbara Strathdee is a graduate BA in English Literature and Italian from Victoria University of Wellington. She has attended short creative writing courses in Wales and in New Zealand, and has published articles on NZ art and artists for specialist magazines.

---