Owen Marshall has written, or edited, 25 books, including three collections of poetry. He has held fellowships at the universities of Canterbury and Otago, and in Menton, France. In 2000 his novel Harlequin Rex won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Deutz Medal for fiction. Marshall is an adjunct professor at the University of Canterbury, which awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in 2002. He received the ONZM in 2000 and the CNZM in 2012 for services to literature, and in 2013 the Prime Minister's Award for Fiction.