Bub Bridger 1924-2009
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She was one of the mainstays of the 90s feminist show Hens’ Teeth, particularly when she read aloud her raunchy performance pieces addressed to younger men – e.g. the poet Ian Wedde, or the All Black Whetton brothers:
I want a Whetton for Christmas!
Either Alan or Gary would do . . .
I’d l-o-o-o-o-ve a Whetton for Christmas
For some frolicsome festival woo
But – they tell me that Gary is married
Still . . . Alan is there to be plucked
And his eyes and his thighs are s-o-o-o-o sexy
And his body just made to be . . . admired.
(from ‘A Christmas Wish’)
Bub was one of the very first writers to get her start at Victoria University. She attended a creative writing course with Michael King here in 1974, and always credited him as ‘the one who showed me the way’. For those who have missed her work – both poems and short stories – the best place to make its acquaintance is in the 2005 collection Wild Daisies: the Best of Bub Bridger, which contains over 100 pages of writing, plus a CD of Bub herself reading a selection of poems.
On Boxing Day between 8 and 10 am National Radio will replay Kim Hill’s 2005 interview with the poet, alongside an interview with Sam Hunt.
1 comment:
My father is often cited as the person who got Bub writing, but what isn't as well known is that she did the same for me. When I was about 16 I entered the PEN Young Writer competition. It was double blind judging, and when I got the story I wrote back, it was from Bub, who I had known since I was 10 years old. She wrote on my story: "You say some rather silly things. But there is something beautiful about this. Keep it up and I'm sure you'll be a writer one day." It was some 15 years before I told her about receiving those comments.
She told me later she was criticised for being too harsh with her feedback to the entrants, but she was just being honest in a caring way.
She was a wonderful woman who I will miss greatly.
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