broadsheet: new new zealand poetry

Last year New Zealand poet Bill Manhire put out a jazz CD album Buddhist Rain (Rattle Records) in collaboration with musician Norman Meehan. It’s a very enjoyable CD.

This year broadsheet asked Bill to contribute to issue 7 (as he was a friend of the featured poet Anthony Rudolf). One of his song lyrics, ‘Crime Scene’, from The Victims of Lightning (VUP, 2010) was chosen.

Bill’s poetry has always had a strong musical element. It shows in his poetry readings and in much of his work published since the early 1970s. So it seems a natural progression to set Bill’s words to music.

broadsheet was pleased to see music critic Simon Sweetman writing about Bill’s collaboration with Norman in Blog on the Tracks.

Here’s a link to a free download of Bill and Norman’s track ‘Pacific Raft’.

Issue 6 of broadsheet (featuring Auckland poet, critic, editor of Poetry NZ and novelist Alistair Paterson) was reviewed in the spring issue of The Evergreen Review (No. 126) in America, edited by former Grove Press publisher Barney Rosset. The following notice about it appeared in Wellington’s Dominion Post, Arts & Entertainment section, edited by Tom Cardy, 19 May 2011:

“The Evergreen Review is one of the most respected and influential literary magazines in the world. It was founded in 1957 by Barney Rosset, who succeeded in publishing the uncensored Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the works of Henry Miller in the United States. Contributors have included Albert Camus, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Bertolt Brecht, Jean-Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and many more. So it’s great to see the spring issue – it has existed online since 1998 – praising Wellington poetry magazine broadsheet edited by Mark Pirie. This is the equivalent of a Wellington musician being championed by Rolling Stone or a Wellington film-maker by Variety.”

broadsheet, no. 7, May 2011, featuring Anthony Rudolf (UK) is available now.

Ian Wedde’s poem ‘Harry Martens’ first published in broadsheet 5 (May 2010) was selected by editor Chris Price for Best New Zealand Poems 2010, the annual online collection from the IIML (International Institute of Modern Letters). broadsheet is pleased to have first published this poem and congratulates Ian on his inclusion.

See broadsheet 5 for Ian’s poem and the rest of the issue. broadsheet 5 featured the late Harvey McQueen. Harvey was Ian’s co-editor of the best-selling The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse (1985). The poem was offered by Ian specially for the Harvey McQueen issue.

The distinguished British poet/translator Anthony Rudolf will feature in broadsheet 7.

Anthony Rudolf is an autobiographer, poet, literary critic, editor and translator. Recently he completed a volume of short stories and is now working on a new memoir. His many books and pamphlets include Mandorla (poetry, 1999), The Arithmetic of Memory (autobiography, 1999), Wine from Two Glasses (Adam Lecture, King’s College, London) and At an Uncertain Hour: Primo Levi’s War against Oblivion (literary criticism, 1990 and 1991). He has translated fiction, drama and, in particular, Yves Bonnefoy’s poetry (most recently Yesterday’s Wilderness Kingdom, 2001). His other books include pioneering anthologies of contemporary French Poetry and 20th century Jewish poets from all languages. His reviews, articles, poems, translations, obituaries and interviews with writers have been published in journals such as TLS, New Statesman, London Magazine, Time Out, Stand, Poetry Nation Review, Modern Painters and the Independent. He has written an introduction to R.B. Kitaj (National Gallery 2001). Anthony is an occasional broadcaster (BBC TV, Radios Three, Four and World Service: Arts World) and Visiting Lecturer in Arts and Humanities at London Metropolitan University. He has lectured and read at conferences, festivals and universities in many countries. He is the founder of Menard Press. In 2004 he was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French minister of culture, and has recently been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

broadsheet 7 will feature poems from his new collection, Zigzag, published by Carcanet/Northern House (UK) in August 2010 and an extract from his new memoir.

In addition to the previous confirmation of poets to appear in broadsheet 7, the following poets are also confirmed to appear: Graham Lindsay (NZ), Bill Manhire (NZ), Genevieve McClean (NZ), Sarah Jane Barnett (NZ), Jan Kemp (NZ/Germany), and Ila Selwyn (NZ).

The issue will be published in May 2011.

broadsheet is pleased to confirm the following poets will appear in broadsheet 7, May 2011: Madeleine Marie Slavick (USA/Hong Kong), Janet Charman (NZ), Saradha Koirala (NZ), Anna Jackson (NZ), Harvey Molloy (NZ), Helen Lowe (NZ), Emma Barnes (NZ) and Basim Furat (Iraq/NZ).

Madeleine Marie Slavick is a widely published and award-winning poet and photographer currently living in New Zealand in the Wairarapa. Her poems have been published in A Fine Line (the New Zealand Poetry Society’s newsletter).

More poets in broadsheet 7 will be confirmed over the next month.

broadsheet, no. 6, November 2010, featuring Alistair Paterson is available now.

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