Claire Hiria Ahuriri-Dunning
| Website | https://www.hiriadunning.com |
Claire Hiria Ahuriri-Dunning (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Raukawa, pronouns: she/her/they/them) was a mentee in the Te Papa Tupu 2024 cohort and a recipient of an NZSA mentorship in the same year. They are best known internationally as the host of weekend writing prompt #pretendpanel on Bluesky, and nationally for writing the accidentally profound play Spilt Milk at age fourteen. No matter which genre playground they're playing in, whether on stage, poem, prose or gaming console, their fantastical and inclusive stories come from the heart. When not writing, Hiria enjoys collecting divination paraphernalia and dodging their cat's assassination attempts.
Notable achievements:
- Play Spilt Milk won Auckland Flip the Script 2005 and received a Special Mention from Playmarket's Plays for the Young competition 2010.
- Brechtian adult pantomime Dracula was shortlisted in the Adam NZ Play Awards 2018.
- Video game Wonderland Nights: White Rabbit's Diary which won the Poetic Serving: Excellence in Narrative Pav award at the NZ Game Awards 2021.
- 3rd place in the 2024 RWNZ Pacific Hearts Unpublished Novel Competition as pseudonym Kara Moon for the romance novel Love Amongst Liars
Pen names:
- Hiria Dunning - prose works and poetry
- Claire Hiria Dunning/Claire Ahuriri-Dunning - playscripts and video games
- Claire Ahuriri - works published prior to 2016
- Kara Moon - romance
Genre:
- Children's Fiction
- Fantasy
- Fiction
- Romance
- Plays
- Short Stories
- Science Fiction
- Young Adult
Skills:
- Novelist
- Playwriting
- Public Speaking
- Readings
- Readings (adults)
- Short Story Writing
Branch:
Auckland
Location:
Auckland
Publications:
STAGE ADVENTURES: EIGHT CLASSROOM PLAYS
Claire's play featured in this volume is: Spilt Milk
It is a normal day for Main Character. But then the Catalyst approaches him, thinking he is some sort of spy ... suddenly a flood washes the Catalyst away from him, and MC finds himself in the barren wasteland of The Margin. His whole life was just a play, and he lived inside the director's copy of the script. Whose just spilt coffee on it, and life is now in disarray. MC meets Coffee and other pencilled-in notes that the director has made over the rehearsals in The Margin.
Criticism, Subtext, and Stage Directions, Mystery, Love Interest, Theme, Comedy and Tragedy and other aspects of drama personified all take part ... a scintillating exploration of all the parts of a piece of dramatic writing - including the writer's desperate post-it notes.
This publication is available here: https://www.playmarket.org.nz/bookshop/playmarket-play-series/spilt-milk
101 NEW ZEALAND MONOLOGUES FOR YOUTH
Claire's work in this volume is a monologue from King Arthur the Pantomime.
This volume can be purchased here: https://www.playmarket.org.nz/bookshop/playmarket-play-series/101-new-zealand-monologues-for-youth