Thalia Henry
Thalia Henry lives in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Inspired by the landscapes of the rugged South Island high country, where she spent time as a teenager learning to glide with her late father, Terry, Beneath Pale Water is her debut novel. The manuscript comes out of a play Powdered Milk which she wrote in 2008 and presented at the Dunedin Write Out Loud Festival. Beneath Pale Water was awarded a gold award in the 2018 IPPY competition - Australia/New Zealand Best Regional Fiction category.
Thalia's recent publications include a reflection about freedom in the Cloud Ink Press Covid-19 themed anthology, Fresh Ink A Collection of Voices from Aotearoa 2019 and a narrative poem in More than a Roof, an anthology collated by Landing Press, described as an eclectic and varied story about 'home'.
Thalia is finalising her second novel manuscript, Sorry Rocks, set in Te Henga (Bethells Beach) and the Northern Territory of Australia.
Annabelle Grierson says: “Cloud Ink Press is thrilled to publish Thalia Henry’s debut novel, Beneath Pale Water, which we believe will make a unique and lasting contribution to New Zealand literary fiction. Thalia’s writing is both a poetic and suspenseful in a tale in which the South Island landscape has the presence of a living being. The novel is unpredictable as the characters journey towards the action-packed finale.”
Renowned Kiwi author Owen Marshall says Beneath Pale Water “powerfully evokes the landscapes and seasons of inland Otago.”
"Lucid and springy dialogue." David Hill, New Zealand Listener.
"The strangest thing I've read for quite some time.
The most original thing I've read for quite some time."
Louise O'Brian, Radio New Zealand nine to noon.
"There's a threatened sort of tension that builds and builds."
Ruth Todd, Plains FM.
"A story which invokes feelings of suspense and anticipation by focusing on the mental and emotional instability of its characters." (...) "A gripping read." Shelley Chappell, Takahē Magazine.
“Beneath Pale Water contains three memorable characters set into ever-tighter orbits in an intricately patterned plot.” Craig Cliff, Landfall.
