The 10pm Question

Kate De Goldi is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated authors, with works spanning short fiction, novels, and picture books that captivate readers of all ages.

She is the author of the highly acclaimed novel The 10 PM Question, which has achieved international recognition. This book earned her the prestigious New Zealand Post Children’s Book of the Year Award twice. In 2009, The 10 PM Question secured the Book of the Year and Best Young Adult Fiction awards at the New Zealand Post Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Awards. It was also a runner-up in the Montana NZ Book Awards and won the Readers’ Choice Award. Furthermore, it was a finalist for the LIANZA Children’s Book Awards’ Esther Glen Award, shortlisted for the Nielsen BookData NZ Booksellers’ Choice Award, and selected for the international catalogue The White Ravens in 2009. De Goldi is a regular commentator on children’s books for National Radio’s Saturday Mornings with Kim Hill.

De Goldi’s literary achievements are further highlighted by numerous other accolades, including the Katherine Mansfield and American Express awards for her short stories. She has been recognized with significant fellowships, such as the 2010 Michael King Fellowship, and was honored as an Arts Foundation Laureate in 2001. In 2011, she received the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award for her outstanding contributions to children’s literature. In the same year, she won the Corine International Book Prize Young Readers Award, acknowledging excellent literary achievements and public recognition.

A respected voice in broadcasting, a former chair of a book festival, and a sought-after public speaker, De Goldi is also deeply committed to engaging with schoolchildren.

Her debut publication, Like You, Really, a collection of interconnected short stories for adults, was released under the name Kate Flannery. This was followed by the cross-over young adult novel Sanctuary, which won the Best Senior Fiction Award in 1997. Her young adult novels Love, Charlie Mike and Closed, Stranger (a YA Honour Book at the 2000 New Zealand Post Book Awards) have also been critically acclaimed.

Illustrator Jacqui Colley has brought three of De Goldi’s books to life: Clubs, Uncle Jack, and Billy. Her junior novel The ACB with Honora Lee featured illustrations by Gregory O’Brien. In 2016, her novel From the Cutting Room of Barney Kettle won the Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction at the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

Writing about De Goldi’s debut collection, The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, notes the emergence of her characteristic themes and stylistic approaches, identifying “The sense of identity through kinship implied in the title is the unifying concern.” The stories are characterized by their fluid chronology, with characters and events being “retold and revisited,” thereby constructing a family history. The judges for the 2009 New Zealand Post Book of the Year award commented on The 10 PM Question, stating that “De Goldi’s winning book invites you to become part of another family, to spend some quality time with its members, become engrossed in the family dynamics to the point that … this family has now become our family, too … The judges predict, with reasonable confidence, that The 10 PM Question will become an enduring classic.”

The ACB with Honora Lee delves into the relationship between a young girl, Perry, and her grandmother, who is living with dementia in a rest home. As Honora’s vocabulary fades, Perry diligently collects words, and “it’s the intersection between the two which De Goldi plays with throughout.” A profound connection develops between Perry, her grandmother, and the staff and residents of the home as Perry creates an alternative alphabet book with her grandmother. The result, as described by Victoria Spence in Metro magazine, is “sheer joy”: “De Goldi’s love of language shines brightly, word play shapes many conversations.” North & South praised the novel as a “delicate honeycomb of a book” where “there is not a wasted or insignificant word … The prose is like music, with rhythms carefully crafted.” De Goldi explained in The Weekend Herald that the backdrop of the Christchurch earthquakes and her mother’s move into care inspired her to explore themes of “cracks in the community and fractures in my mother’s head,” as well as the concepts of bonding and “constructing meaning” from adversity.

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