“The Poet Laureate Advisory Group received some excellent nominations
but was unanimous in its choice of Vincent to succeed Ian Wedde for the
two-year Laureate term,” said Advisory Group chair and Alexander Turnbull
Library Chief Librarian, Chris Szekely.
“Nominators mentioned his wide appeal and ability to relate to range of
audiences with warmth, wit and erudition. I have no doubt he will be an articulate
and intelligent voice for the role and meaning of poetry.”
From its inception in 1997 through to 2007 the Laureates have been: Bill Manhire, Hone Tuwhare,
Elizabeth Smither, Brian Turner and Jenny
Bornholdt. Since 2007, when the National
Library of New Zealand took over the appointment of the Poet
Laureate, the Laureates have been Michele Leggott, Cilla McQueen and Ian Wedde
Vincent O’Sullivan joins six other Dunedin poets at a public reading to
mark New Zealand Poetry Day at Port Chalmers Library tonight (Friday 16 August)
6.30pm – 8.00pm.
About the new poet laureate
Vincent O’Sullivan born in Auckland in 1937 is a poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, critic and editor.
A graduate from the universities of Auckland (1959) and Oxford (1962), he lectured in the English departments of Victoria University of Wellington (1963–66) and (after several months in Greece) the University of Waikato (1968–78), before committing himself to full-time writing.
He served as literary editor of
the NZ Listener (1979–80), and then (1981–87) won a series of writer’s
residencies and research fellowships in universities in Australia and New
Zealand, interrupted by a year as resident playwright at Downstage Theatre,
Wellington (1983). In 1988 he resumed his academic career as professor of
English at Victoria University of Wellington.
Since 2004 he has been Emeritus
Professor in the School of English and Film Studies at Victoria, but is now
based in Dunedin. The winner of many literary prizes, including the Prime
Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement for Poetry in 2006, he was the Katherine Mansfield Memorial
Fellow in Menton in 1994, and the first writer-in-residence at Henderson House
in Alexandra in 2007.
Nomination comments 2013:
Stephen Stratford:
What astonishes is the
sustained vigour, wit, technical facility, emotional and intellectual range
and, increasingly, warmth. From the Butcher poems of 1977 to the latest “uneasy
pieces” in tribute to Allen Curnow, the voice is unmistakable. We have cerebral
poets, amusing poets, inventive poets, political poets, sensitive poets – but
no one else who does it all.’
Brian Turner:
His work is
wide-ranging in content and tone; you get wit, poignancy, satire, erudition and
mastery of the NZ vernacular. He’s the real thing. And a straight
shooter…fluent and unaffected.
Cilla McQueen:
Vincent has been part
of my personal poetic landscape since the 1960’s. Although he has published
many academic works of great value in his career, it is as a poet that I see
him, and feel that he still has a good deal more to say to us…..
David Howard:
For over half a
century, alongside distinguished publications in fiction, non-fiction and
drama, Vincent O’Sullivan has produced poetry that speaks with gracious
authority about the human consequences of partial knowledge.
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