Kevin Ireland

Kevin Mark Ireland OBE (born 18 July 1933) is a New Zealand poet, short story writer, novelist and librettist.[1]

Life

Born in Auckland, in 1959 Ireland headed for London where he remained for twenty-five years (with the interlude of a short interval in Bulgaria, translating Bulgarian poetry into English); for two decades, Ireland was employed by The Times.

In 1986, Ireland was writer-in-residence at Canterbury University; in 1987, he was the Grimshaw-Sargeson Fellowship; in 1989, he was the University of Auckland's writing fellow, assistant editor of Quote Unquote, and president of PEN, 1990–91.[2]

Family

Ireland's second wife was Phoebe Caroline Dalwood (1940-2000);[3] Ireland has two stepsons. He lives in Devonport, New Zealand.[1]

Honours and awards

• 1979 – New Zealand Book Award for Poetry for Literary Cartoons
• 1990 – New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal
• 1992 – Appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to literature, in the 1992 Queen's Birthday Honours[4]
• 2004 – Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement[5]

Works

• "Railway Jokes", Sport 8 (Autumn 1992)
• "Face to Face: Twenty-Four Poems" (1963)
• "Educating the Body" (1967)
• "A Letter from Amsterdam" (1972)
• "Orchids, Hummingbirds and Other Poems" (1974)
• "A Grammar of Dreams" (1975)
• "Literary Cartoons" (1977)
• "The Dangers of Art: Poems 1975–80" (1980)
• "Practice Night in the Drill Hall: Poems" (1984)
• "The Year of the Comet: Twenty-Six 1986 Sonnets" (1986)
• "Selected Poems" (1987)
• "Tiberius at the Beehive" (1990)
• Anzac Day: Selected Poems. Hazard Press. 1997. ISBN 978-1-877161-11-7.
• Fourteen reasons for writing: new poems. Hazard Press. 2001. ISBN 978-1-877270-08-6.
• Walking the land. Hazard Press. 2003. ISBN 978-1-877270-52-9.
• How to Catch a Fish. Awa Press. 2005. ISBN 9780958253864.
• How to Survive the Morning. Cape Catley. 2008. ISBN 9781877340178.
• Dreamy Days and Nothing Done. Steele Roberts Aotearoa. 2012. ISBN 978-1-877577-69-7.
• Selected Poems 1963-2013. Steele Roberts Aotearoa. 2013. ISBN 978-1-927242-16-2.

Short Stories

• Sleeping With the Angels. Penguin Books. 1995. ISBN 978-0-14-024497-7.

Novels

• Blowing My Top. Penguin Books. 1996. ISBN 978-0-14-025645-1.

Editor

• The New Zealand Collection: A Celebration of the New Zealand Novel (1990)

Essays

• "Kevin Ireland on Frank Sargeson", Quote Unquote, November 1995, Issue Four
• Islands 28 (1980)
• One of the Boys? (1988)
• Skinning a Fish (1994)

Memoirs

• Under the bridge and over the moon. Vintage. 1998. ISBN 978-1-86941-363-7.
• Backwards to forwards: a memoir. Vintage. 2002. ISBN 978-1-86941-499-3.

Anthologies

• Jenny Bornholdt; Gregory O'Brien; Mark Williams, eds. (1997). An anthology of New Zealand poetry in English. Oxford University Press New Zealand. ISBN 978-0-19-558338-0.

References

1. Profile, International Who's Who in Poetry and Poets' Encyclopaedia; accessed 23 September 2015.
2. Profile, bookcouncil.org.nz; accessed 23 September 2015.
3. "Ireland, Phoebe Caroline, active 1940-2005". Ireland, Phoebe Caroline, active 1940... | Items | National Library of New Zealand | National Library of New Zealand. 1 January 1940. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
4. "No. 52953". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 13 June 1992. p. 30.
5. "Previous winners". Creative New Zealand. Retrieved 24 October 2013.

External links

• "Kevin Ireland", New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre
• Interview with Kevin Ireland for Cultural Icons project. Audio.
• Profile, natlib.govt.nz; accessed 23 September 2015.