Brian Turner (New Zealand poet)

Brian Lindsay Turner (born 4 March 1944 in Dunedin)^[1] is a New Zealand poet and author. He played hockey for New Zealand in the 1960s; senior cricket in Dunedin and Wellington; and was a veteran road cyclist of note. His mountaineering experience includes an ascent of a number of major peaks including Aoraki/Mount Cook.

His writing includes columns and reviews for daily and weekly newspapers, articles, given radio talks, and written scripts for TV programme. His publications include cricket books with his brother Glenn Turner, the former NZ cricket captain, essays, books on fishing, the high country, and eight collections of poetry. His other brother is golfer Greg Turner.

As of 2008 Turner lives in Oturehua, a town of 30-40 people in the Maniototo region of Central Otago. He moved there in late 1999.^[2]

Awards and recognition

Memorial plaque dedicated to Brian Turner in Dunedin, on the Writers' Walk on the Octagon

Source: ^[3]

• 1979 Commonwealth Poetry Prize
• 1985 J.C. Reid Memorial Prize
• 1993 Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry
• 1997 appointed Canterbury Writer in Residence
• 2003 appointed Te Mata Estate New Zealand Poet Laureate
• 2009 Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry^[4]
• 2010 Poetry Award at the New Zealand Post Book Awards

Selected works^[5]

• 1978 Ladders of Rain
• 1981 Ancestors
• 1983 Listening to the River
• 1985 Bones
• 1989 All That Blue Can Be
• 2001 Taking Off
• 2002 Somebodies and Nobodies (memoir)
• 2005 Footfall
• 2009 Just This
• 2011 Inside Outside
• 2012 Elemental: Central Otago Poems

References

1. World Who's Who, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group (2012).
2. Interview in Sunday Star Times, 13 July 2008 pages C1-C2
3. New Zealand Book Council http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/turnerbrian.html
4. "Previous winners". Creative New Zealand. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
5. New Zealand Book Council http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/turnerbrian.html

External links

• Interview with Brian Turner, from New Zealand Listener of March 5-11 2005, Vol 197 no 3382