Gifkins was born in
Wellington, New Zealand, in 1945. He attended the
University of Auckland where he later taught English literature. As literary agent, Gifkins represented a number of leading New Zealand writers, including
Lloyd Jones and
Greg McGee. Gifkins wrote three short-story collections:
After the Revolution (1982), ''Summer Is the Côte d'Azur
(1987) and The Amphibians
(1989). His stories appeared in a number of New Zealand literary journals including Landfall and Islands
, and in 1984 one of his stories featured in Some Other Country: New Zealand's best stories
, an anthology edited by Bill Manhire and Marion McLeod. He also edited and published a number of anthologies, beginning with The Gramophone Room
(with C. K. Stead in 1983) and Listener Short Stories 3'' (1984), In 1982,
Owen Marshall reviewed Gifkins' first collection for
The Press. He described Gifkins' writing as having a contemporary, modern focus, with several of the stories dealing with "the questing, mobile lifestyle of young adults". he also noted that the stories had an authentic New Zealand character and setting. In 1985 Gifkins was the
Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellow in
Menton, France. He described it as his "first taste" of an
OE (overseas experience), and used the time to work on his third short story collection. Gifkins was the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Auckland in 1983, and won the
Lilian Ida Smith Award for fiction in 1989. He was a member of the
New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) from 1982 until his death. He died on 29 July 2014. ==Legacy==