Peter Olds
Peter Olds (born 1944) is a New Zealand poet. He was born in Christchurch. Freed the poetry magazine 1969–72 published him, and he was a central figure to the younger poets of the 1970s. He held the University of Otago Robert Burns Fellowship in 1978. Influences on his poetry include American rock'n'roll, the 1950s beat poetry of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, and his own experiences in psychiatric institutions. Olds currently lives in Dunedin.
Peter Olds | |
|---|---|
 New Zealand poet Peter Olds, photographed in Dunedin, October 2014 | |
| Born | 1944 Christchurch, New Zealand |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Notable awards | Robert Burns Fellowship |
He left school at 16, and began writing in 1966. His first volume of poems was Lady Moss Revived (1972), followed by V-8 Poems (1972), The Snow and the Glass Window (1973), Freeway (1974), Doctor’s Rock (1976) and Beethoven’s Guitar (1980). His published broadsheets include Exit: 2 Poems (1971), Schizophrenic Highway (1971), The Habits You Left Behind: Poem (1972), and Schizophrenic Rhino (1972). He replied to his friend James K. Baxter's poem Letter to Peter Olds (1972) with his Doctor’s Rock.
Cold Hub Press [1] has published five of his books of poetry, most recently You fit the description, THE SELECTED POEMS OF PETER OLDS, with an introduction by Ian Wedde ( ISBN 978-0-473-29803-6).
References
- Robinson, Roger; Wattie, Nelson (1998). The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. Oxford University Press. p. 413. ISBN 0-19-558348-5.