Lloyd Jones is one of New Zealand's most innovative and accomplished writers. A former journalist who has travelled the world and lived for extended periods in other countries, he has published award-winning short stories, novellas, novels, essays, and a memoir. His novels include The Book of Fame, winner of the Tasmania Pacific Prize for Fiction; Mister Pip, winner of the Commonwealth Prize for Literature and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Hand Me Down World, shortlisted for the Berlin International Prize for Literature, The Cage, and The Fish. He is a New Zealand Arts laureate and recipient of the Prime Minister's Prize for Literature. The Empty Grandstand is his first book of poems.