Us, Then

Overview

With a characteristic use of vernacular and an active application of his senses as he encounters the world around him, New Zealand Poet Laureate Vincent O’Sullivan produces intensely personal poems in this collection. For all that they brim with insight, however, the poems also concern themselves with larger themes of philosophical curiosity, religion, and mortality. And though the verses frequently employ iambic pentameter, they rise above the level of poetical exercises, offering humor and narrative.

Author Biography

Vincent O'Sullivan is former professor of English at Victoria University of Wellington and at the University of Waikato. He is the author of the novels Believers to the Bright Coast and Let the River Stand, which won a Montana New Zealand Book Award; the poetry collections Blame Vermeer, Further Convictions Pending: Poems 1999-2008, Lucky Table, and Seeing You Asked; and Long Journey to the Border, a biography of John Mulgan. He is the coeditor of The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, and he has edited several major anthologies.