Reading New Zealand Poetry around the world

Reading New Zealand Poetry around the world

One of the world’s leading literary critics and poets Harvard Professor Stephen Burt, who has a particular interest in New Zealand poet James K Baxter, will discuss New Zealand poetry in an event hosted by the University of Canterbury’s English department, next week.

In 2012, The New York Times described Professor Burt “one of the most influential poetry critics of his generation.”

In a free public event chaired by UC English Professor Paul Millar, Prof Burt, who is currently a Visiting Canterbury Fellow, and New Zealand publisher and literary commentator Fergus Barrowman, MNZM, will discuss work by a range of poets from New Zealand and elsewhere. They will look at ways to gain New Zealand poetry a greater international readership and discuss how contemporary poetry travels – or does not travel – between nations and across oceans.

Stephen Burt’s essay collection Close Calls with Nonsense (Graywolf Press, 2009) was a finalist for the prestigious US National Book Critics Circle Award. His other works include The Art of the Sonnet (Harvard University Press, 2010), Parallel Play: Poems (Graywolf, 2006), Randall Jarrell on W. H. Auden (University Press, 2005), Belmont (Graywolf Press, 2013) and The Poem is You (Harvard University Press, 2016).

Burt grew up around Washington, DC and received an AB from Harvard in 1994 and a PhD in English from Yale in 2000. He taught at Macalester College for several years before becoming a Professor of English at Harvard University. He lives in the suburbs of Boston with his spouse, Jessie Bennett, and their two children.

UC English hosts: Reading New Zealand Poetry Around the World: A Conversation with Stephen Burt and Fergus Barrowman,Thursday 26 January, refreshments from 5.30pm for 6pm start at Scorpio Books, 120 Hereford Street, Christchurch. Admission: Free but please RSVP for catering purposes to cassie.paterson@canterbury.ac.nz.

ends

© Scoop Media