Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page

A new anthology of New Zealand’s finest poetry.

 A major new collection of New Zealand poetry is released by Godwit on 4 July. Essential New Zealand Poems includes 150 poems by 150 poets and is handsomely packaged with a cloth-bound cover and features photographs throughout. In this it is similar to its much-lauded predecessor, edited by the late Lauris Edmond and Bill Sewell, which was also published by Godwit in 2001 and has long been out of print.

Editors Siobhan Harvey, James Norcliffe and Harry Ricketts, all talented poets, academics, anthologists and poetry champions, started their selection in the 1950s, which they argue marked a watershed in New Zealand society, culture and literature.

The roll call of poets shows the book’s range: Fleur Adcock, James K Baxter, Allen Curnow, Lauris Edmond, CK Stead, Denis Glover, Janet Frame, Bill Manhire, Hone Tuwhare, Vincent O’Sullivan and Brian Turner are all there, as are well known ‘mid-career’ poets such as James Brown, Kate Camp, Glenn Colquhoun and Paula Green. There’s a strong representation of the new generation of Pacific Island poets as well as poems by newer poets who have recently achieved or will soon achieve the milestone of their first collection.

The collection acknowledges New Zealand’s distinct geography and New Zealanders’ engagement with the land. And the editors argue that the poets they’ve included have ‘a finger on the pulse of New Zealand, on its society, its culture and its mores — both as they are present and as they are evolving.’

‘New Zealanders adore poetry,’ says publisher Nicola Legat. ‘And this expertly selected collection shows exactly why. New Zealand poetry is by turns distinctive, affecting, joyous, revealing, moving, challenging, startling, profound and intimate. It is our lyrical national voice.’

Siobhan Harvey is a poet and non-fiction author who has published five books. She has worked as poetry editor of takahe magazine and editor of the Poetry Archive (UK), where she worked as assistant director on the 25 New Zealand Poets on the Poetry Archive UK project, which was launched in 2012. She has also been a consulting editor of International Literary Quarterly and guest editor of Poetry New Zealand and JAAM. Graham Beattie once described her as a ‘literary activist’, a term she actively embraces, especially in her literary organisational work, which has included organising an annual writers’ festival series at the Auckland Art Gallery, mentoring six writers into publication through the New Zealand Society of Authors mentorship scheme and, between 2006 and 2013, acting as New Zealand’s National Poetry Coordinator. She has written book reviews and literary articles for numerous New Zealand newspapers and journals, including Landfall, New Zealand Listener, New Zealand Herald, The Press and Beattie’s Book Blog. Harvey is a lecturer and tutor at the Centre of Creative Writing at the Auckland University of Technology AUT.

James Norcliffe is a poet, writer and editor who has published a collection of short stories, eight collections of poetry and several award-winning novels for young people, most recently Felix and the Red Rats (Longacre, 2012), which has been shortlisted for the 2014 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards. He has had a long-time involvement with takahe and has edited anthologies of poetry and writing by young people. He is poetry editor for the Christchurch Press. Norcliffe has been awarded writing fellowships both in New Zealand and overseas, including the Burns Fellowship, the IWP/Iowa Residency, and residencies in Hobart, at Massey University and at the University of Otago College of Education. He publishes poetry widely internationally, and regularly reads at festivals and occasions throughout New Zealand and overseas.

Harry Ricketts teaches English Literature and Creative Non-fiction at Victoria University, and co-edits the quarterly review journal New Zealand Books. He has written or edited 25 books, including a biography of Kipling, nine collections of poems, extended personal essays and various anthologies. His most recent collection of poems, Just Then, was published by Victoria University Press in 2012, and his essay ‘On Masks and Migration: Learning to Stand Upright’ appeared in the Griffith Review 43, Pacific Highways. He is working on an anthology of New Zealand war writing and writing about friendship.

Siobhan Harvey, Harry Ricketts and James Norcliffe

Godwit - RRP: $45.00

Released: 4 July 2014