Smither, Elizabeth

[Photograph: Jan Kemp (2002)]

Elizabeth Smither (b. 1941)

Contents:

Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance (2006):

Red shoes
Smoking with Carol
Saveloy
Listening to The Goldberg Variations
Late Summer Dew

Aotearoa NZ Poetry Sound Archive (2004):

CD34

1. Red shoes
2. Shopping with Beth
3. Smoking with Carol
4. Barbara and the restaurant bill
5. Saveloy
6. Sleeping on a waterbed
7. Listening to Handel with a cat
8. Listening to the Goldberg Variations
9. Late summer dew

Bio /Bibliography:

Elizabeth Smither (b.1941) has spent most of her life in New Plymouth where she works as a librarian. She is the author of 12 collections of poems and has also written short stories and novels. A pattern of marching (AUP, 1989) won the New Zealand Book Award for poetry in 1990 and The Lark Quartet (AUP, 1999) the Montana NZ Book Award for poetry in 2000. She has been a literary fellow at Auckland University (1984), has twice held Scholarships in Letters, as well as other awards. In 2001 she was appointed Te Mata Poet Laureate, the first woman to hold the position. She has served on the Literature Committee of Creative New Zealand, and as a mentor to new writers. Most recently she has edited The Best New Zealand Poems 2002. Her work has been published in Australia, Canada, Britain and the United States and she has appeared at festivals in Toronto, Melbourne, Wellington and Auckland. Her latest publications are a collection of short stories: Listening to the Everly Brothers and a novel: The sea between us (both Penguin). A selected collection of poems will be published later this year by Arc Publications, UK. Her interests include teaching creative writing, theatre and film, music, cricket and spending time with friends.

Poetry:

Here come the clouds. Alister Taylor, 1975
You're very seductive, William Carlos Williams. McIndoe, 1978
The Sarah train. Hawk Press, 1980
Casanova's ankle. OUP, 1981.
The legend of Marcello Mastroianni's wife. AUP, 1981
Shakespeare virgins. OUP, 1983.
Professor Musgrove's canary. AUP, 1986.
Gorilla, Guerilla. Earl of Seacliffe Art Workshop, 1986.
Animaux. Modern House, 1988.
A pattern of marching. AUP, 1989.
A cortege of daughters. Cloud Press, 1993.
The Tudor style; poems new and selected. AUP, 1993.
The Lark Quartet, 1999.