broadsheet editor Mark Pirie writes on L E Scott's work in his Preface to Broadsheet 9

 Preface

 I first saw Lewis Scott read at the Angus Inn Pub Poets night in 1996. Like all the best performers, his reading was powerful and memorable. Lewis’s performance had all the energy, rage and charisma that first drew me in to poetry and the blues in my teens.

As a child I had visited New Orleans and subsequently grew to love blues and jazz. Some of my favourite performers in my teens were rock artists like Jim Morrison who carried a sound understanding of the blues and other folk traditions inherited from the greats like Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, John Lee Hooker and Willie Dixon.

Lewis first came to New Zealand in the 1970s and has become an integral part of our live poetry scene ever since. Notably, in recent years, his reputation as a performer has taken him overseas to festivals and readings in Australia, Cuba, the US, Canada, France, Fiji, Singapore and Africa. Brett Dionysius, former organiser of Subverse: Queensland Poetry Festival, has referred to him as a ‘performance maestro’.

Aside from performance, however, Lewis’s poetry also works on the page, and he has had published many collections of his poetry. Often he uses a spare, pared back form fused with incisive images and other times his words dance and howl across the page in the best blues fashion.

He has also written fiction, non-fiction and book reviews. Focusing on indigenous and African-related subjects, Lewis has become a learned writer for journals like Tu Mai. His writings on African Diaspora and other topics such as HIV/AIDS in West Africa are widely published.

I’m pleased to feature Lewis in broadsheet. He has made a significant contribution to New Zealand literature with his writing over the past 30 or more years. Besides his own work, he also recently started the Ballroom Café poetry events in Newtown, Wellington, and these have blossomed into popular monthly meetings. Teresia Teaiwa, a teacher at Victoria University and a participant at the Ballroom, contributes an article on its worth and importance where many new and first-time poets cut their teeth. Wellington needs this open space for poets.

Some contributors to this issue include poets and writers who have known Lewis for many years. Their warm response to my idea for a Lewis Scott issue shows the esteem Lewis carries. Others, like Cliff Fell, Rangi Faith, Nicola Easthope, Bill Sutton, Vaughan Rapatahana and Robert McLean, appear in broadsheet for the first time.

Mark Pirie

Wellington, May 2012