Sunday 18 February 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of Spiral Collectives publishing Keri Hulme’s the bone people.

Image is of the invitation for the original launch of the bone people.

Recipient of the New Zealand Book Award for Fiction in 1984, it gained worldwide recognition winning the Booker Prize in October 1985. It was the first novel from Aotearoa and the first debut novel to win the Booker Prize. Over the decades, the bone people has been published in several languages and reprints, resulting in Keri’s pukapuka becoming one of the country’s iconic literary titles. 

In 2022, the Alexander Turnbull Library purchased a typed manuscript and with advice from Spiral, this has enabled researchers to gain insights into Keri’s writing prose. Learn more about this significant acquisition in a National Library of New Zealand’s blog.  

We remember Keri Hulme (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe) for her hospitality and generosity and look forward to working on future projects to celebrate Keri and the bone people.