Karyn Hay: Difference between revisions

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| caption = Karyn Hay, Wellington, April 2017

| occupation = WriterAuthor and& Broadcasterbroadcaster

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'''Karyn Hay''' {{post-nominals|country=NZL|ONZM|size=85%}} (born 1959, in [[Auckland]]) is a [[New Zealand]] author and broadcaster. She came to fame as the presenter of 1980s music TV show [[Radio with Pictures]] before going on to an extensivea career in television and radio.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hay|first1=Karyn|title=Biography|url=https://www.nzonscreen.com/person/karyn-hay/biography|website=NZ On Screen|publisher=Available under a CC-BY-NC Licence|accessdate=12 March 2017}}</ref>

==BackgroundEarly life==

Hay grew up in the [[Thames Valley]] dairy factory town of Waitoa, near [[Te Aroha]]. She recalls it as “heartland"heartland New Zealand... There was this yearning all the time to break out of that."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Herkt|first1=David|title=Karyn Hay: Still A Rebel|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/87095301/Karyn-Hay-still-a-rebel|work=Your Weekend Magazine (Cover/Interview) Dominion Post, Christchurch Press, Waikato Times|date=3 December 2016|accessdate=12 March 2017}}</ref> She has only dim recollections of the 60s music TV shows.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Stirling|first1=Pamela|title=Who's That Girl|work=NZ Listener (Cover/Interview)|date=10 March 1984|page=14}}</ref> She found her escape in the printed word, "... reading William Burroughs, Hermann Hesse, Jean-Paul Sartre… Coming from a town like Waitoa, that kind of literature was more expansive than any kind of drug".” <ref>{{cite news|last1=Schmidt|first1=Veronica|title=Hayday|work=The Sunday Star-Times (Interview, Sunday pullout)|date=11 July 2004|page=24}}</ref>

Inspired by "the thought of arguing for a living”living",<ref>{{cite news|last1=Schmidt|first1=Veronica|title=Hayday|work=The Sunday Star-Times (Interview, Sunday pullout)|date=11 July 2004|page=24}}</ref> Hay initially applied for law school but became a cadet with [[Radio New Zealand]] instead, beginning work at 1ZH in [[Hamilton, New Zealand|Hamilton]] as a [[copywriter]]. She worked as a copywriter at [[Radio Hauraki]], and was New Zealand's first female rock [[DJ]].

Her television career began in 1981 when she wrote to [[Television New Zealand]] suggesting they might like a new presenter for alternative music show [[Radio with Pictures]]. Producer Peter Blake thought “she"she was right for the times...after the whole [[punk rock|punk]] [[New wave music|new wave]] thing, the music was changing, and the programme with it." <ref>{{cite news|last1=Stirling|first1=Pamela|title=Who's That Girl|work=NZ Listener (Cover/Interview)|date=10 March 1984|page=15}}</ref>

It was too much change for some of the audience. She had a [[New Zealand accent]] in an era when BBC style [[received pronunciation]] was compulsory for New Zealand television presenters, and they were required to attend elocution lessons. She either refused to attend, or was let off. Hay was the first New Zealand television presenter to speak with a New Zealand accent.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Harrop|first1=Nicky|title=The Kiwi accent on screen|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11816454|work=NZ Herald Weekend Rewind|date=11 March 2017|accessdate=5 April 2017}}</ref> Journalist Veronica Schmidt recalled that “although"although the BBC plum was no longer stuffed in every announcer’s mouth, appearing with an entirely raw Kiwi accent was still unheard of”of".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Schmidt|first1=Veronica|title=Hayday|work=The Sunday Star-Times (Interview, Sunday pullout)|date=11 July 2004|page=24}}</ref> Listener writer Diana Wichtel remembered her unreconstructed Kiwi vowels as "depending on your point of view, the end of civilization as we knew it or a breath of indigenous fresh air". For her part, Hay was unrepentant, telling the [[New Zealand Listener]] “I’m"I’m a New Zealander. I’m not ashamed of my New Zealand accent".”<ref>{{cite news|last1=Stirling|first1=Pamela|title=Who's That Girl|work=NZ Listener (Cover/Interview)|date=10 March 1984|page=14}}</ref>

Her stint with [[Radio with Pictures]] ran for five years.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Smithies|first1=Grant|title=Radio With Pictures: Forming the musical tastes of a generation|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/78094270/Radio-With-Pictures-Forming-the-musical-tastes-of-a-generation|date=27 March 2016|accessdate=5 April 2017}}</ref> She left in 1986, later recalling that, “Being"Being a TV personality or whatever, celebrity just wasn’t me in a way…I didn’t want to be stuck".” <ref>{{cite news|last1=Welch|first1=Denis|title=Karyn Hay (Writer)|work=NZ Listener|date=28 October 2000|page=12}}</ref>

In 1987, Hay moved to [[London]] with partner [[Andrew Fagan]], ex-lead singer of rock band [[The Mockers]]. The couple lived on a [[houseboat]] on the [[River Thames]] . It was here that she wrote her first novel ''Emerald Budgies.'' Karyn returned to New Zealand with Andrew in 1989. They returned to England in 1996 where she had two children

''Emerald Budgies'' was described in the [[blurb]] as "a darkly comic tale of drug addiction and betrayal". It was first published in [[England]], in 2000, under the nom de plume Lee Maxwell (her middle names). She had wanted to throw off her previous public image but, on the promotional tour that followed, she said she felt like an imposter in a spy movie. "I started thinking, maybe I don't want to be this new person, maybe it's not so bad being Karyn Hay." <ref>{{cite news|last1=Schmidt|first1=Veronica|title=Hayday|work=The Sunday Star-Times (Interview, Sunday pullout)|date=11 July 2004|page=23}}</ref>

[[Kate Camp]] described ''Emerald Budgies'' as ‘raw'raw, thoughtful and very funny’funny'.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Camp|first1=Kate|title=Emerald Budgies (review)|work=NZ Listener|date=4 November 2000|page=61}}</ref> [[Chris Knox]] said it 'was not for the queasy... Imagine 1980s [[Doris Lessing]] crossed with [[Bret Easton Ellis]] and you’reyou're some way to imagining what this book reads like'.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Knox|first1=Chris|title=Not for the queasy|url=http://nzbooks.org.nz/1999/literature/not-for-the-queasy-chris-knox/|website=NZ Books|date=1 September 1999|accessdate=5 April 2017}}</ref> For Denis Welch it was, “A"A relentlessly bleak —– if extremely funny —– vision of modern life with no redemption whatsoever for anyone anywhere . . . There are times when ''Emerald Budgies'' makes ''[[Trainspotting (novel)|Trainspotting]]'' look like ''[[Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm]]''.’ <ref>{{cite news|last1=Welch|first1=Denis|title=Karyn Hay (Writer)|work=NZ Listener|date=28 October 2000|page=12}}</ref>

''Emerald Budgies'' won the NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction in the ''2001 Montana Book Awards''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Montana New Zealand Book Awards|url=https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/montana-new-zealand-book-awards/|website=Christchurch City Libraries|accessdate=12 March 2017}}</ref> and Hay was awarded a ''[[Frank Sargeson]] Fellowship'' in 2004.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Frank Sargeson Fellowship|url=http://www.grimshaw.co.nz/about-us/grimshaw-sargeson-fellowship/|accessdate=13 March 2017}}</ref>

Her second novel, ''The March of the Foxgloves'', was published in New Zealand in 2016. Set in 1893, the book touches on the [[19th century]] trade in [[erotic photography]]. A deluxe hardcover edition included photographs by fine-art photographer Vicky Papas Vergara, featuring Australian [[burlesque]] artist Miss Sina King. ''The March Ofof Thethe Foxgloves'' was No. 1 on the New Zealand fiction charts.

Dionne Christian, writing in the NZ Herald, called ''The March Ofof Thethe Foxgloves'' “a"a funny, lively and energetic romp which delves into the underbelly of society" and that Hay “has"has paid close attention to the settings - London, Auckland and Tauranga - period details and historical events”events".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Christian|first1=Dionne|title=An Energetic Romp (review)|work=NZ Herald Weekend Magazine|date=21 January 2017|page=14}}</ref> Stephanie Jones found Hay “a"a sly and delightful wordsmith, a grand raconteur of the page, in whose hands historical fiction feels utterly current, even urgent” urgent"<ref>{{cite web|last1=Jones|first1=Stephanie|title=Book Review|url=http://www.thecoast.net.nz/life/book-reviews/stephanie-jones-book-review-the-march-of-the-foxgloves-by-karyn-hay/|website=The Coast|date= 5 December 2016|accessdate=28 March 2017}}</ref>

In Spring 2018, she was a resident at the [[Michael King Writers' Centre]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Michael King Residency|url=http://writerscentre.org.nz/karyn-hay-late-spring-residency-2|accessdate=2 February 2019}}</ref>

===Short Storystory Collectionscollections===

*''The Picnic Virgin'' Edited by [[Emily Perkins (novelist)|Emily Perkins]]. Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press, 1999. {{ISBN|9780864733689}}

[[Category:New Zealand radio personalitiespresenters]]

[[Category:1959New birthsZealand women radio presenters]]

[[Category:WomenNew Zealand women television presenters]]