Elizabeth Edwina Smither (born 15 September 1941) is a New Zealand poet and writer.

Life and career

Smither was born in

New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. Th ...

, and worked there part-time as a librarian. Her first collection of poetry, ''Here Come the Clouds'', was published in 1975, when she was in her mid-thirties. She has since published over fifteen poetry collections, as well as several short story collections and novels. Her work has won numerous notable awards, including three times the top poetry award at the New Zealand Book Awards. In 2002, she was named the

New Zealand Poet Laureate The New Zealand Poet Laureate is a poet appointed by the National Library of New Zealand to represent New Zealand's community of poets, to promote and advocate for poetry, and to produce a number of published works during their two-year tenure as ...

Harry Ricketts Harry Ricketts (born 1950) is a poet, biographer, editor, anthologist, critic, academic, literary scholar and cricket writer. He has written biographies of Rudyard Kipling and of a dozen British First World War poets. Life Ricketts was bor ...

, writing for ''The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature'', describes her strength as being "the short poem, usually but not always unrhymed, witty, stylish and intellectually curious". He also notes that her poetry tends to feature figures from literature and legends, as well as

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Awards

*1987 Scholarship in Letters *1989

Lilian Ida Smith Award The Lilian Ida Smith Award also known as the NZSA Lilian Ida Smith Award is a New Zealand literary award from the New Zealand Society of Authors The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN New Zealand Inc.) promotes and protects the interests of ...

(non-fiction) *1990

New Zealand Book Award for Poetry The Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry is an award at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, presented annually to the winner of the poetry category. The winner receives a 10,000 prize. History The New Zealand Book Awards were set up by the New ...

*1992 Scholarship in Letters *2000

Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry The Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry is an award at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, presented annually to the winner of the poetry category. The winner receives a 10,000 prize. History The New Zealand Book Awards were set up by the New ...

*2002 Te Mata Poet Laureate *2008

Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement is a New Zealand literary award established in 2003 by the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand), the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government. Each ...

in poetry *2012

Landfall Essay Competition The ''Landfall'' Essay Competition is an annual competition open to New Zealand writers. It is judged by the current editor of the long-running literary magazine ''Landfall'' and the winning entry is published in a subsequent issue of the maga ...

*2014

NZSA Janet Frame Memorial Award The NZSA Janet Frame Memorial Award was an award for mid-career fiction or poetry writers. It was named after New Zealand writer Janet Frame, who died in 2004, and funded by a gift from the Janet Frame Literary Trust. It was awarded biennially from ...

*2016

Sarah Broom Poetry Prize The Sarah Broom Poetry Prize is one of New Zealand's most valuable poetry prizes. It was established to celebrate the life and work of New Zealand poet Sarah Broom. The prize was first awarded in 2014. History The Sarah Broom Poetry Prize was e ...

*2018 Ockhams New Zealand Book Award for Poetry

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections

* * ''You’re Very Seductive William Carlos Williams'' (1978) * ''The Sarah Train'' (1980) * ''The Legend of Marcello Mastroianni's wife'' (1981) * ''Casanova's Ankle'' (1981) * ''Shakespeare Virgins'' (1983) * ''Professor Musgrove's Canary'' (1986) * ''Gorilla/ Guerilla'' (1986) * ''Animaux'' (1988) * ''A Pattern of Marching'' (1989) * ''A Cortège of Daughters'' (1993) * ''The Tudor Style: Poems New and Selected'' (1993) * * * ''Horse Playing the Accordion'' (Ahadada Books, Tokyo & Toronto, 2009) *''The Love of One Orange'' * *

Anthologies

* *

List of poems

Novels

* First Blood (1983) * Brother-love Sister-love (1986) * The Sea Between Us (2003) ''2004 Finalist for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards

Short Stories

* Nights at the Embassy (1990) * Mr Fish (1994)

References

External links

"Elizabeth Smither", ''New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre''Interview at Academy of New Zealand Literature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smither, Elizabeth 1941 births Living people Meanjin people Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit New Zealand women poets New Zealand Poets Laureate