About

More tasty morsels served up by a delectable selection of poets.

Take a break and enjoy three of our most prominent poets discussing their craft and reading from their work.

Bill Manhire’s published books include Collected Poems (2001), Lifted (2006) and many anthologies. He was the inaugural Te Mata Estate New Zealand Poet Laureate in 1996–97, received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate award in 2005 and, in 2007, the Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry. He directs the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. His latest collection of poetry, The Victims of Lightning, was published earlier this year to critical acclaim.

Cilla McQueen is our current New Zealand Poet Laureate and lives and works in Bluff. She has published 11 collections of poetry and won the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry three times. Her most recent collection was entitled A Wind Harp.

Harry Ricketts teaches creative non-fiction and English at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University, Wellington, co-edits New Zealand Books and is a regular book reviewer for Radio New Zealand. He has jointly edited with Paula Green an anthology of poems entitled 99 Ways into New Zealand Poetry. The book celebrates the richness and variety of New Zealand poetry by outlining many of the numerous ways to read - and write – poems.