Arvidson, K. O.

K. O. (Ken) Arvidson (b. 1938)

Contents

Aotearoa NZ Poetry Sound Archive (2004):

CD01

1. After Rilke
2. Old Blush
3. Readings
4. Some Legends of the Civil War
5. In Suva’s Morning Light
6. End

New Zealand Poets Read Their Work (1974):

LP 1, side 2

The Tall Wind
This Giving

Waiata Archive (1974):

CD 15

This Giving
Gnomic Poem
The Tall Wind
At Pukerua Bay
Fish & Chips on the Merry-Go-Round
Riding the Pendulum
Four Last Songs – Part I
Four Last Songs – Part III

Bio /Bibliography:

Kenneth Owen Arvidson, born in 1938, named after grandfather Knut Otto Arvidsson, is married to Mary Southby. He has three children, two of them by an earlier marriage, and five grandchildren. From 1956 he studied part-time at the University of Auckland, firstly in science, graduating BA in 1963 in English, German and Philosophy, and MA in 1966, in English. Early poems appeared firstly in Kiwi, and from 1963 in Landfall.

1961-63 taught senior English at St Peter’s College, Epsom.
1964-66 Junior Lecturer in English, University of Auckland.
1967-70 Lecturer in English, Flinders University, Adelaide.
1971-74 Lecturer in English, University of the South Pacific, Suva.
1974 Lecturer in English, University of Waikato.
1984 Associate Professor of English.
English Department chairman 1984-1989 and 1993-95.
2002- Research Associate, University of Waikato.
Main teaching and research areas: Victorian literature, Modernism, History and Theory of Criticism, New Zealand literature, Australian literature, Pacific literature and culture, and Irish literature.

Some career highlights:

1963 Macmillan Brown Prize for Literature (poetry).
1973 Examiner in English for the South Pacific region, NZ UE Board.
1977 Took part in the East-West Center (Honolulu) International Literary Symposium at invitation of US State Department.
1980- Professional Associate, East-West Center, Honolulu.
1981 Poetry judge, National Book Awards.
1982 Fiction judge, National Book Awards.
1982- Editorial Board, Journal of New Zealand Literature.
1986-87 Associate Member, Darwin College, University of Cambridge.
1987 Presented “An evening of NZ poetry”, NZ Embassy, Washington DC.
1993 Judge, BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award.
1994-96 Chairman, South Pacific Assn of Commonwealth Lang and Lit Studies.
2001- Editor, Journal of New Zealand Literature.

Publications include Riding the Pendulum: Poems 1961-69, OUP (Auck) 1973, and editions of John Gorst’s The Maori King, Reed 2001, and The Selected Poems of Lauris Edmond, BWB 2001. Poetry has appeared in Landfall, Islands, Mate, Comment, Meanjin, NZ Poetry Yearbook, Poetry Australia, Poetry NZ, and Sport. Poetry has been anthologised in Young Commonwealth Poets, Anthology of 20th Century NZ Poetry, NZ Writing Since 1945, Penguin Book of NZ Verse, The Oxford Book of NZ Poetry in English, NZ Love Poems (Bertram, Edmond), and Essential NZ Poems.

A further volume of poetry is in preparation.