‘Brasch’ Celebration To Open Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival

The Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival opens tomorrow at the Athenaeum Library with the presentation of a new cache of publications including the first ever selected edition of Charles Brasch poems and fittingly the latest Landfall release. Charles Brasch (1909–1973) was the founder and first editor of Landfall, New Zealand’s premier journal of literature and ideas. Charles Brasch Selected Poems has been compiled by Alan Roddick, Charles Brasch’s literary executor.

Charles Brasch’s work is also being celebrated by a new edition of Poems by Esenin. Esenin is one of the most widely read and loved of all Russian poets and many of his poems were translated by Charles Brasch along with Peter Soskice. For this new edition of Poems by Esenin Cold Hub Press has commissioned artist Wayne Seyb to create not just a new cover image, but a set of nine woodcuts to accompany the poems.

Dunedin poet David Eggleton launches his new collection of poetry, The Conch Trumpet

and Vincent O’Sullivan presents Being Here: Selected Poems, the first book to survey the entire span of Vincent O’Sullivan’s poetry, from Bearings (1973) to new poems first published in this volume.

Also in this impressive line-up is A Place to Go On From The Collected Poems of Iain Lonie.  Dunedin poet Iain Lonie (1932–1988) was a Cambridge scholar who enjoyed an international reputation as a medical historian but died before his poetry was fully appreciated.  This collection, assembled from sources public and private, is the result of poet David Howard’s determination to rescue a memorable body of work from oblivion. As well as the poems from Lonie’s published volumes, it includes over a hundred unpublished works, two essays and an extensive commentary.

Festival director Alexandra Bligh says, as a UNESCO City of Literature, it is very fitting that Dunedin should play host to launch these works of such historical significance.

“It’s a wonderful start to the Festival and will be followed by almost 40 events involving a  stellar range of writers who are set to enrich, enlighten and inspire over the next six days.”