NEWS Aug 04, 2011
Ian Wedde, New Zealand Poet Laureate 2011-2013
Photograph by Mark Beatty
Ian takes up the Laureateship as Cilla McQueen completes her term, during which she created the long-form ongoing poem Serial, a combination of her text and images from the National Library collections.
As Laureate, Ian will advocate for New Zealand poetry, act as a public face of the artform, and publish new work.
He has started his tenure by releasing a work-in-progress, “Shadow Stands Up” under a Creative Commons license, which lets others use the poem in their own work with just a few conditions. The poem is available on the NZ Poet Laureate blog.
The Poet Laureate Award was established by the Te Mata Estate in 1996, and taken over by the National Library in 2007 when Michele Leggott was selected.
Ian Wedde lives in Auckland, and teaches in the departments of English and Art History at Auckland University. He has published dozens of works including collections of poetry, novels, art catalogues, and a monograph on the artist Bill Culbert. He has worked as a critic for the London Magazine and the Evening Post, and as the head of art and humanities at Te Papa.
Alongside the work he publishes on the NZ Poet Laureate blog, he is preparing a new collection of poems, The Lifeguard, and planning a book of selected pieces.
