The first work of non-fiction from Janet Frame to be published in 25 years may reveal an interesting side to the author, and may shock some people, her niece says.
At the end of the year, Penguin NZ will publish the new collection of non-fiction which includes all of Frame's short non-fiction work, published essays, reviews and reports as well as speeches and extracts from interviews.
The book will also include published letters spanning 50 years of Frame's life, and passages from her personal correspondence. Frame's niece Pamela Gordon, of the Janet Frame Literary Trust, said it had taken trustees several years to edit the works.
The working title of the book was "Janet Frame in the First Person", a reference, Ms Gordon said, to the author's feeling of having often been referred to in the third person, as if she was not there.
With this book, trustees had tried to let Frame speak for herself, which some people might find refreshing, Ms Gordon, of Dunedin, said.
The contents of the book were revealing and in some cases satirical and quite sensational, she said.
"It's quite funny. I think some people will be shocked about some things."
The effect of putting the non-fiction works together was to create a miscellany of Frame's writing, Ms Gordon said.
"It does come across like a handbook to a writer's life."
The trust's hope was that the collection would challenge any inaccuracies held about Frame. Penguin also has the rights to publish two new fiction books.
The first will be a volume of previously uncollected short stories, as well as some unpublished stories. The second is an adult fable written by Frame in Ibiza during the 1950s, the first publication of material from Frame's time in Ibiza, where she had her first profound romantic encounter.
