A meaty and satisfying selection of the work of one of New Zealand's most preeminent and prolific poets, tracing the development of his work from the seventies to today
'Johnson is one of New Zealand's most accomplished and inventive writers, at one with the word, its power, its airy fitness and everyday solidities, its resourcefulness, its craft.'
Siobhan Harvey, Winner of the Kathleen Grattan poetry award, 2019
'The immense complexity of human relationships, social, sexual and everyday are at the heart of much of Mike's best poetry. However, there's an almost equal pull towards the empyrean: the cosmic mysteries of nature and the visible world, the beauty of the birds, trees and beaches which surround him in his longtime home-base, Waiheke Island.'
Jack Ross, editor of Poetry New Zealand (2014-2019)
'[Johnson finds] just the right formulation to deliver a descriptive vitalism that is open, alert, tentative, ambulatory, elegant, palpable.'
David Eggleton, Poet Laureate, 2019-2022
About the Author :
Mike Johnson, fiction writer and poet, is widely regarded as one of New Zealand's most innovative writers. He lives on Waiheke Island and has taught creative writing at AUT University and the University of Auckland. In 2002 he received The University of Auckland's Literary Fellowship, having been Literary Fellow at Canterbury University in 1987. His first novel, Lear, the Shakespeare Company Plays Lear at Babylon was short listed for the New Zealand Book Awards in 1986, his novel Dumb Show won the Buckland Memorial Award for Literary Excellence in 1995, and he won the Frances Kean Award his short story, 'Magic Strings' in 1999. His first book of poetry, The Palanquin Ropes, (1983) was co-winner of the John Cowie Reed Memorial Competition. His non-fiction, Angel of Compassion, was shortlisted for the Ashton Whyle Award in 2014, and a poem from Vertical Harp, The selected poems of Li He (2006) has been anthologised in the Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page (Random House, 2015). Mike Johnson is the author of twenty-six books including nine books of poetry, three of shorter fiction, one non fiction, three children's books, and ten novels. Jack Ross and has edited numerous collections of writing and a variety of journals. Ross has worked as a teacher of New Zealand literature and creative writing, and he is co-editor of a series of books dedicated to capturing New Zealand poets in performance. He was also editor of Poetry New Zealand for five years.
Review :
'Johnson is one of New Zealand's most accomplished and inventive writers, at one with the word, its power, its airy fitness and everyday solidities, its resourcefulness, its craft.'
Siobhan Harvey, Winner of the Kathleen Grattan poetry award, 2019
'The immense complexity of human relationships, social, sexual and everyday are at the heart of much of Mike's best poetry. However, there's an almost equal pull towards the empyrean: the cosmic mysteries of nature and the visible world, the beauty of the birds, trees and beaches which surround him in his longtime home-base, Waiheke Island.'
Jack Ross, editor of Poetry New Zealand (2014-2019)
'[Johnson finds] just the right formulation to deliver a descriptive vitalism that is open, alert, tentative, ambulatory, elegant, palpable.'
David Eggleton, Poet Laureate, 2019-2022
