Cilla mcqueen biography

Support us. Resources and ako. Writer's Files Reviews Reviews. School Library. Apply for Cilla to visit my school. Related writers. I love love love her poetry. Lots of the women read with their translators. The room overflowed with warmth, aroha and poetry. Our Poet Laureate electrifies a room with poems and countless other venues! I also went to my double poetry launch of the year.

He was so genius in his response. The book inspired another email conversation for the blog. Tusiata Avia exploded my heart at her event with her cousin Victor Rodger; she read her challenging Unity and astonishing epileptic poems. Such contagious strength amidst such fragility my nerve endings were hot-wired can that be done? In a session I chaired on capital cities and poets, Bill Manhire read and spoke with such grace and wit the subject lit up.

Capital city connections were made. All else was put on hold. I adore this book with its mystery and revelations, its lyricism and sinew; and doing a snail-paced email conversation was an utter pleasure. This is a book that sticks. I carry her voice with me, having heard her read the poems at a Circle of Laureates event. How this books sings with freshness and daring and originality.

But listening to Jane read before I announced the winner I felt she had lifted me off the ground her poems were so good. I was on stage and people were watching. We had a terrific email conversation. And the way writing poetry can still be both fresh and vital. How can poetry be so good?! Utter magic. Have now read all three and I adore them. I had the anxiety flowing on linking city and poet again but forgot all that as I became entranced by their poems and responses.

Such generosity in sharing themselves in public — it not only opened up poetry writing but also the complicated knottiness of being human. Might sound corny but there you go. Felt special. VUP was another book that blew me apart with its angles and smoothness and provocations. We conversed earlier this year by email. Otago University Press have released Poeta: Selected and new poems this year.

I will miss him making his picks on Fridays good news though Ashleigh Young is taking over that role. My fave poetry thing all year has been the beautiful Heartache Festival that Hana Pera Aoake and Ali Burns put on at the start of the year! Spread over an afternoon and evening, across two Wellington homes, with readings and music and so much care and aroha.

Poetry-related things made up a lot of my highlights this year. I mean, obviously, winning the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize was … pretty up there. I discovered two things after the win. And second, that the constant state of sleep deprivation brought on by having a baby is actually strangely good for writing poetry. It puts me into that semi-dream-brain state that helps me see the extra-weirdness in everything.

This year I read more poetry than I have in ages, and whenever I enjoyed a book I declared it my favourite I always do this. However, three local books have especially stayed with me and I will re-read them over summer: the debuts by Tayi Tibble and Sam Duckor-Jones, and the new Alice Miller. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday that day, but we still managed to coax people into a dark windowless room to listen to some New Zealand poetry for a couple of hours.

This is a poetry moment I will treasure for many years to come. But far and away the most rejuvenating poetry experience for me during was working with the children at Karitane School, a small primary school on the East Otago coast. I appreciate the journey my visitors undertake to reach me. A reluctant traveller myself, a special poetry moment for me was spent with Elizabeth Smither and Bill and Marion Manhire at Malo restaurant, in Havelock North.

It was poetic and romantic; late night dinners in high rise restaurants, bottles of dark wine served up like water, extremely flowery and elaborate cat-calling Madam, you are a candy! We went there, because Eileen had beef with the chef at the last place and also we had too much actual beef generally, but I digress. So anyway there we are eating a vegan pizza and platter food, chatting.

Eileen gets a text from Diana, one of the festival organisers telling them they are due to read in 10 minutes. We are shocked because the male latin poets tend to read for up to times their allocated time slots, so we thought we had plenty of time to like, chill and eat vegan. A full on tropical South American storm! Running through the rain in South America.

Marcella and I following Eileen like two hot wet groupies. Throwing our wet dark curls around. The three of us agree that this is lowkey highkey very sexy. Cinematic and climatic. Eventually we hail a taxi because time is pressing. Eileen, soaking wet and therefore looking cooler than ever, reads her poem An American Poem while Marcella and I admire like fangirls with foggy glasses and starry eyes.

Curated and introduced by poet Chris Tse looking incredibly dapper in a sparkly jacket it was an inspiring antidote to bullying, shame, and the pressure to conform. A book. A publishing event. An invitation, as Karyn Parangatai writes in her similarly bilingual review of the book in Landfall Review online another publishing first? There are so many poetry highlights for me this year, so many good books that have left me buzzing for the verse!

It has pulled me back into a world of geological time and fractured identity. After pouring over their writing all year in the workshop environment seeing their writing in book form brought me to tears.

Cilla mcqueen biography

So proud of them both! Taitano, explores space, in the world and on the page. They engage with narratives both indigenous and colonial critiquing the racist rhetoric and systems of the colonial nation state. Working with these people has and continues to be a such a blessing! I put together a zine of queer NZ poetry called Queer the Pitch. I can only imagine that it would be a super humbling experience to have your work taken from English and returned to the language of the manu.

Ka rawe! They hid behind a table but their creative energy was palpable even through the glass. I would also like to mention a poetry salon hosted by Christine Brooks, at which a dog-and-cheese incident of startling grace brilliantly put into play her theory about the relevance of improv theatre theory to poetry practice. Perhaps my happiest poetry moment of the year took place one evening when I was alone in the house and, having cooked an excellent dinner and drunken rather a few small glasses of shiraz, started leafing through an old anthology of English verse reading poems out loud to myself, the more the metre the better.

The South Island landscape, cities and people are strong feature along with riddles, seasons, time, friendships, hens and the kitchen table. Some of my favourite poems by Cilla are here along with some delightful new discoveries. I have always admired her poetry with its deft musical chords, attention to detail and intimate moods. She has the ability to re-catch a moment or place that matters to her and allow it to shine for the reader.

This is the power of this anthology. It takes you to places and you become embedded in the scene. You are also transported into the heart of friendships in poems that generate warmth and intimacy. I find these friendship poems moving as as though just in the moment of reading I am invited into a life. Here she is being equally playful — the lines in the second stanza run in reverse order:.

I wrote a rave review about this book on my blog and wanted it win book awards and find a zillion readers. A recent poem invites us into her writing space which includes a study, a lounge and a kitchen, a view and the wind outside. Sun bleached poetry spines. Robert Burns Fellows. New Zealand Poet Laureate. Authority control databases.

New Zealand Artists. Hidden categories: Webarchive template wayback links Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Use dmy dates from April Use New Zealand English from June All Wikipedia articles written in New Zealand English All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from August Toggle the table of contents.

Cilla McQueen. McQueen in Preceded by Michele Leggott. New Zealand Poet Laureate — Succeeded by Ian Wedde. McPherson, Sandra. Mcpherson, James Munro. McPherson, James M. McPherson, James M unro McPherson, James Alan —. McPherson, James Alan McPherson, James A lan. McPherson, Heather —. McPherson, Edward ? McPherson, David —. McPherson, Conor McPherson, Conor ?

McQueen, Ian. McQueen, Mary — McQueen, Steve. McQueen, Steve McQueen, Thelma — McQuillan, Rachel —.