Writer
Writer
Listener – March 24, 2007
Language and literature run in poet Andrew Johnston’s family. His father was an English lecturer and his grandfather a newspaperman. After 10 years in France, Johnston has come home and published a new book, Sol, which includes “The Sunflower”, a long, impressive elegy to his father.… More,,,
Listener – December 10, 2006
In the new Landfall, poet and critic John Dolan takes on New Zealand poetry. It’s a bloodbath: “Poets like Mark Pirie have a huge ‘kick me’ sign on their backs … I just wonder why a good poet like Eggleton would waste time on a bad dead one like Fairburn … By far the worst is C K Stead’s smirking gloss …” So who exactly is John Dolan?… More,,,
Listener – July 20, 2003
Ten years after writing the screenplay for Once Were Warriors, Riwia Brown sticks close to Jesus.
A good 400 worshippers swarm to the altar of Paraparaumu church the Centre as American pastor Steve Gray chants, “Do you want it now?” What they want is to be anointed by God through the hands of the charismatic preacher.… More,,,
Listener – April 13, 2002
The hard graft of Manawatu sculptor Paul Dibble.
Bronze sculptor Paul Dibble is a big gentle man with hunched shoulders and a complexion like a stretch of unsealed country road. His large colonial Palmerston North home is chocker with New Zealand contemporary and folk art – “You haven’t got a nation unless you’ve got folk art” – while his huge foundry/workshop is sited in an industrial precinct across town.… More,,,
Listener – September 1, 2001
One of our greatest songwriters, Wayne Mason, continues his love affair with the shape and shadow of New Zealand.
“I love New Zealand’s physical nature,” says Wayne Mason. “I adore the country. Recently, I hopped on a boat and then rode by bike over to Cape Farewell by myself.… More,,,
Listener – April 14, 2001
“Intellectual bullshit artist” and “concept leader for art” Ian Wedde makes his comeback as a man of letters.
Ian Wedde is writing poetry again after a decade’s layoff. He rose out of the late 60s an intellectual bigwig, a key writer of his generation, the Big Smoke generation.… More,,,
Listener – February 17, 2001
“It’s not just a gallery, it’s something more than a gallery,” says Peter McLeavey. “I don’t quite know what a site is. I suppose it’s where something happens. I’ve never changed the walls. I’ve never done them up. I can look at these walls and I can sort of say: Billy Apple, 1976, Colin McCahon, Gordon Walters, Milan Mrkusich, Charles Tole.… More,,,
Listener – October 21, 2000
“Are we having funnn!” implores “The Legend” . “Yeaah,” chant the dancers. “You little beauuutees,” cries this country’s first rock’n’roll star Johnny Devlin.
“We” are at the Levin Cossie Club at Johnny’s Shake Rattle & Roll Dance Show. About a dozen dancers, including photographer Janet Bayly and myself, are on the dancefloor.… More,,,
Listener – June 17, 2000
When I rang for an interview Jacquie Baxter asked: “What hat am I to wear – J C Sturm or Jacquie Baxter?” The answer, of course, is both. The widow of the country’s most famous poet and the woman who has become a poet in her own right are one and the same, inseparable.… More,,,