Poetry Day

The following comes from the poets.org website, based in the US, which was created to help American booksellers promote poetry on National Poetry Month (April 2010).

Many of these suggestions may be helpful for NZ's National Poetry Day (30 July 2010). Take a look!

The World's Fastest Flower - Charlotte Simmonds

Victoria University Press, ISBN 978-0-86473-576-8, $25.00 pbk

The Propaganda Poster Girl - Amy Brown

Victoria University Press, ISBN 978-0-86473-574-4, $25.00 pbk

What emerges from this collection, without ever leaning on the familiar modes of confession, is a compelling self-portrait. Where other young poets might have found only feelings, Amy Brown finds images and scenes to carry the burden of disclosure. Rather than endless interiors, there’s a palpable, recognisable world in the work. This is a thoughtful, mature and provocative collection.
– Damien Wilkins

NZSA BEST FIRST BOOK OF POETRY 2009

Everything Talks - Sam Sampson

Auckland University Press, ISBN 978-1-86940-411-6, $24.99 pbk

If the poems in this collection by Sam Sampson are mysterious, they are also as true to immediate fact – informed by a particularly New Zealand nostalgia and sense of loss – as the poet can make them. In these poems of history and geography, of ships and sky, of flotsam and jetsam in an imaginary sea, many different voices may be heard . . . everything talks.

POETRY CATEGORY WINNER 2009

The Rocky Shore - Jenny Bornholdt

Victoria University Press, ISBN 978-0-86473-580-5, $25.00 pbk

The six long poems which make up The Rocky Shore were written over the course of six years. Together, they are as much autobiographical essay as long poem, and Jenny Bornholdt's most significant achievement to date.

Jenny Bornholdt is the author of eight previous collections of poetry and was Te Mata Estate New Zealand Poet Laureate 2005–2007.

The Lakes of Mars - Chris Orsman

Auckland University Press, ISBN 978-1-86940-408-6, $24.99 pbk

Get Some - Sonja Yelich

Auckland University Press, ISBN 978-1-86940-423-9, $24.99 pbk

Edgar is a marine in bad need of a wash and a gun. The deeper he is lost running around the streets of Baghdad, the filthier he gets. get some follows Ed and the responses of his family to his tour of ‘doody’ – but other voices break through the perpetual static of gunfire and electronic noise. Sonja Yelich serves up a whirlwind of perspectives on the war and on contemporary American life.