Overview
Ian Wedde has been a major presence in New Zealand poetry since his work began appearing in journals in the late 1960s. His first book of poetry appeared in 1971; his sixth book won the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry in 1978; his sixteenth and most recent was a finalist in 2014. By the mid-1980s, as well as shaping his own verse, he had become an influential critic and shaper of larger trends in poetry as one of the co-editors of The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse (1985) and The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry – Nga Kupu Titohu o Aotearoa (1989).Reviews
"Wedde's poetry is steered by an intellectual fascination with the world, but the poems are never shuttered in a way that prevents reader engagement." —Paula Green, New Zealand HeraldAuthor Biography
John Reynolds has featured in many key exhibitions and publications on contemporary New Zealand art. He has shown widely throughout the country, and been commissioned to produce projects for a wide range of New Zealand galleries, and the National Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney Biennale, 2006) becoming known as one of New Zealand's foremost painters and printmakers. Ian Wedde is the author of sixteen collections of poetry, seven novels, two collections of essays, a collection of short stories, a monograph on the artist Bill Culbert, several art catalogs, a memoir, and has been co-editor of two poetry anthologies.