The New Zealand Society of Authors give condolences to the family and friends of distinguished author and literary icon, Maurice Gee, who passed away on June 12th. Maurice was 93 years old and had been living in Nelson for many years, where he was a treasured member of our Top of the South Branch. Maurice Gee had been a loyal and supportive member of NZSA member since 1964, and was the NZSA president of honour in 1988.
Gee wrote more than 30 novels for adults and children, including Plumb, described by the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature as one of the best novels ever written in New Zealand.
He won numerous awards, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in the UK, the Mansfield Menton Fellowship, the Robert Burns Fellowship and a Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement. In 2003, he was recognised as one of New Zealand’s greatest living artists across all disciplines by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, which presented him with an Icon Award.
At the 2012 Auckland Writers Festival – his first public appearance for 10 years – he was delighted as the festival’s first Honoured New Zealand Writer.
In discussion with publisher Geoff Walker, Gee said of his more elderly characters: “Old people have a kind of fullness that young people don’t have.” Not necessarily wisdom, but experience and an awareness of death.
“They haven’t stopped living, but can be living intensely at the same time.”
Originally posted on NZ Herald.
News of Maurice Gee’s death has been reported by numerous outlets:
Still Waters Run Deep – John McCrystal on the imaginative life and legacy of Maurice Gee on ANZL
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/564192/respected-kiwi-writer-maurice-gee-has-died-aged-93
https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/15-06-2025/vale-maurice-gee-1931-2025
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/06/15/author-maurice-gee-dies-at-93/
https://waateanews.com/2025/06/15/maurice-gee-dies/
https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360724081/writer-maurice-gee-has-died
https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/16-06-2025/dear-maurice-i-miss-you-tributes-to-maurice-gee-1931-2025
