NEW ZEALAND POETS Contents: Wellington in the 60s (extracts) Road to Jerusalem (extracts) ALISTER TE ARIKI CAMPBELL Like You I m Trapped (extract) HONE TUWHARE The Big Art Trip: Series 01, Episode 13 (extract) CILLA MCQUEEN Frontseat: Series 02, Programme 18 (extract) BILL MANHIRE The Write Stuff: Programme 17 (extract) KEVIN IRELAND The Write Stuff: Programme 18 (extract) DENIS GLOVER Artsville (extract) SAM HUNT The Roaring 40s Tour (extract) BRIAN TURNER The Book Show: Episode 09 (extracts)
All quotations are taken from The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature (Ed. Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie) Wellington in the 60s - The way it seemed (extracts) Pacific Films, NZBC 196- Duration 4:59 New Zealand s most influential poet James K Baxter was born in Dunedin in 1926. Baxter had strong left wing leanings and was often at odds with contemporary society. Mark Williams from the University of Canterbury explains that his poetry uses biblical, classical, Jungian, Indian and Maori mythologies, discrete and mixed, (to) progressively reconfigure the poets pessimistic diagnosis of self, nation and world. In this documentary about people living in the Wellington area, Baxter talks to us about his experience of the city. The Road to Jerusalem (extracts) Morrison Grieve 1997. Duration 14:57 Baxter s life is illustrated through his poems and interviews with his wife, son and friends. ALISTER TE ARIKI CAMPBELL Like You I m Trapped (extract) Martyn Sanderson 1976. Duration 11:30 Alister Te Ariki Campbell was born in the Cook Islands in 1925, immigrating to New Zealand seven years later when he was sent with his siblings to an orphanage in Dunedin. His early work reflects his European education and focuses on themes of love, nature and death, but his later writing is a celebration of his Polynesian roots [his Poetry] is essentially original, finely - 2 -
crafted and spans the objective world of sensation and the inner world of spirit or presence. John O Connor in NZ Books. Alister Campbell and family read Home from Hospital and The Trap and discuss the personal circumstances behind the poems. HONE TUWHARE The Big Art Trip: Series 01, Episode 13 (extract) Screentime Communicado 2001. Duration 10:23 Hone Tuwhare was born in 1922 in Kaikohe of Nga Puhi descent. His poems have an originality that comes from their Maori perspective; the use of imagery; the allusion to mythology; and the description of the land and sea. The poems were marked by their tonal variety, the naturalness with which they could move between formal and informal registers, between humour and pathos, intimacy and controlled anger and especially in their assumption of easy vernacular familiarity with New Zealand readers. In this excerpt we meet Tuwhare at his home in Kaka Point where he reads some of his poems and talks about where his ashes are to be scattered. CILLA MCQUEEN Frontseat: Series 02, Episode 18 (extract) Gibson Group 2005. Duration 6:20 Cilla McQueen was born in England in 1949 and immigrated to New Zealand in 1953. Her poetry evolved through the practice of diary writing and often references the domestic detail of her life. Never one for rigid forms, her work has a linguistic exuberance and inventiveness. She is capable of using the present tense dramatically and employing a direct syntax that creates pace or immediacy. Cilla McQueen talks about her 10th volume of poetry Fire Penny. - 3 -
BILL MANHIRE The Write Stuff: Episode 17 (extract) Pinnacle Producing 1997. Duration 10:48 Bill Manhire was born in Invercargill in 1946 and is now a Professor at Victoria University in Wellington. He in interested in dissecting the relationship that words have with their meanings and associations, and in disestablishing what we perceive as a linear reality through the use of language His poems refuse to tread a straight path, but get from starting point to finishing point with the aid of gracefully executed sidesteps of register, image or narrative In this studio interview Manhire talks about his creative writing course. KEVIN IRELAND The Write Stuff: Episode 18 (extract) Pinnacle Producing 1997. Duration 10:12 Kevin Ireland was born in 1933 in Auckland and was mentored by the writer Frank Sargeson. He describes himself as part of a generation with an anxiety about identity. His poems examine what it means to be a New Zealander. Ireland s work has been described as minimal yet witty, with carefully patterned forms and re-occurring themes of love. In this studio interview Ireland discusses his volume of poetry Anzac Day. DENIS GLOVER Artsville 14/05/2005 (extract) TVNZ 2005. Duration 7:36 Denis Glover was born in Dunedin in 1912. Known as a firebrand for his left wing politics, in 1935 Glover and John Drew set up a printing press Caxton Press which set about publishing any socially responsible literature that it could, including his own work. Landfall, a literary magazine, was eventually established in 1947. Glover wrote about the inevitability of change, and the spaces separating individuals. - 4 -
Taken from a documentary on Glover s life these excerpts include sound and video archive recordings, interviews with friends and photographs. SAM HUNT The Roaring 40s Tour (extract) Anson Grieve 1995. Duration 7:58 Sam Hunt was born in 1946 in Auckland and has been described as the Jack Keroauc of New Zealand literature. His autobiographical poetry is written to be read aloud using simple, colloquial language and regular rhythms. The Roaring 40 s Tour includes live performances of poetry readings and interviews documenting Sam Hunt and Gary McCormick s 1995 pub tour of New Zealand. BRIAN TURNER The Book Show: Episode 09 (extracts) 3rd Party Productions 2006. Duration 10:15 Brian Turner was born in Dunedin in 1944. In 1978 he won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Ladders of Rain and in 1992 the New Zealand Book Award for poetry for Beyond. Turner is known as a regionalist. He writes with the same tough honesty about human emotions, relationships and memories, all subject to the same elemental processes of growth and decay as if they were trees or grass. Brian Turner is interviewed at his home about his writing, his melancholy nature, and his relationship to the land. - 5 -