Thursday, July 10, 2008

NZ Poet Laureate to MC celebration of Kiwi poetry on Montana Poetry Day, Friday 18 July

New Zealand Poet Laureate Michele Leggott (pic left) will MC ‘Poetry Central’, a celebration of Kiwi poetry, on Montana Poetry Day, Friday 18 July.

The festivities will include the launches of Bob Orr's new collection of poems Calypso,(AUP $24.99), with cover and section dividers by Waiheke sculptor Denis O’Connor, and the book-and-CD anthology New New Zealand Poets in Performance, (AUP $44.99), edited by poets Jack Ross and Jan Kemp.




The programme features poetry readings by Bob Orr and poets from New New Zealand Poets in Performance – the Michael King / University of Auckland Writer in Residence Chris Price, Jack Ross, 2007 Glenn Schaeffer Fellow Therese Lloyd fresh from the Iowa Writers Workshop, John Pule and Wellington based poets Mark Pirie and Anna Jackson.

The free public event starts with refreshments at 5.30pm on the ground floor of the Auckland Central Library, 44-46 Lorne Street.

It is supported by Glengarry, Auckland City Libraries, Auckland University Press, The NZ Electronic Poetry Centre and Booksellers NZ.


Other current poetry publishing:




MOONLIGHT
New Zealand Poems on Death & Dying
Edited by Andrew Johnston
Random House - $36.99
(Pub.Montana NZ Poetry Day)








A GOOD HANDFUL

Great NZ Poems About Sex
Edited by Stu Bagby
AUP - $27.99









THE GOOSE BATH POEMS

Janet Frame
Random House - $29.99
(new flexibind edition)








FOOTNOTE:
- here is a poem from Bob Orr's Calypso which made me think nostalgically of long ago days when I lived in Hawkes Bay. Thanks Bob.

Te Mata

Up the back of our valley
There’s a mountain blue with distance.
All day it gazes down
At our houses by the sea –
Tin dinghies becalmed in sun-baked back yards
Water tanks on wooden towers.
It soars above a boundary fence
To take in the smallest view –
This room whose wide window is as open as the day.
It reads like a half-red book
A smoked fish left on the table
As if it were a poem
needing only salt and pepper.

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