Brian Turner (New Zealand poet)

Brian Lindsay Turner ONZM (born 4 March 1944 in Dunedin)[1] is a New Zealand poet and author. He played hockey for New Zealand in the 1960s; senior cricket in Dunedin and Wellington; and was a veteran road cyclist of note. His mountaineering experience includes an ascent of a number of major peaks including Aoraki / Mount Cook.

Turner in 2020

His writing includes columns and reviews for daily and weekly newspapers, articles, given radio talks, and written scripts for TV programme. His publications include cricket books with his brother Glenn Turner, the former NZ cricket captain, essays, books on fishing, the high country, and eight collections of poetry. His other brother is golfer Greg Turner.

As of 2008 Turner lives in Oturehua, a town of 30-40 people in the Maniototo region of Central Otago. He moved there in late 1999.[2]

Awards and recognition

Memorial plaque dedicated to Brian Turner in Dunedin, on the Writers' Walk on the Octagon

Source:[3]

• 1979 – Commonwealth Poetry Prize
• 1985 – J.C. Reid Memorial Prize
• 1993 – Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry
• 1997 – appointed Canterbury Writer in Residence
• 2003 – appointed Te Mata Estate New Zealand Poet Laureate
• 2009 – Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry[4]
• 2010 – Poetry Award for Just This at the New Zealand Post Book Awards
• 2020 – appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature and poetry, in the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours[5]

Selected works[6]

Poetry

• Ladders of Rain (John McIndoe, 1978)
• Ancestors (John McIndoe, 1981)
• Listening to the River (John McIndoe, 1983)
• Bones (John McIndoe, 1985)
• All That Blue Can Be (John McIndoe, 1989)
• Beyond (John McIndoe, 1992)
• Taking Off (Victoria University Press, 2001)
• Footfall (Random House, 2005)
• Just This (Victoria University Press, 2009)
• Inside Outside (Victoria University Press, 2011)
• Elemental: Central Otago Poems(Godwit/Random House, 2012)
• Night Fishing (Victoria University Press, 2016)

Memoir

• Somebodies and Nobodies (Random House, 2002)

References

1. World Who's Who, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group (2012).
2. Interview in The Sunday Star-Times, 13 July 2008 pages C1-C2
3. New Zealand Book Council http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/turnerbrian.html
4. "Previous winners". Creative New Zealand. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
5. "Queen's Birthday honours list 2020". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 1 June 2020. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
6. New Zealand Book Council http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/turnerbrian.html

External links

• Interview with Brian Turner, from New Zealand Listener of 5–11 March 2005, Vol 197 no 3382