Events

Pah Homestead Writer in Residence Michael Harlow and fellow writers Kevin Ireland & Riemke Ensing read from current and published work, participated in a Q+A session and signed books.

Michael Harlow
Michael Harlow has published seven books of poetry, including Giotto's Elephant (a Finalist in the National Book Award for  Poetry, 1991), Cassandra's Daughter (AUP, 2005, 2006), and most recently The Tram Conductor's Blue Cap (AUP). The Associate and Poetry Editor at Landfall for some ten years, he has also been the Katherine Mansfield Fellow, and in 2004 the Randell Cottage Writer in Residence. Take a Risk, Trust Your Language, Make a Poem was awarded the PEN Best First Book of Prose (1986). He was the Burns Fellow for 2009, and the inaugural Caselberg Artist in Residence (Dunedin).  The Tram Conductor's Blue Cap was a Finalist for the 2010 National Book Awards for Poetry.  He lives and works in Central Otago as writer, editor, and Jungian therapist. He has been awarded the University of Otago Wallace Writer in Residence for 2011/2012, and currently resides at The Pah Homestead.

Kevin Ireland
Kevin Ireland was born in Mt Albert, Auckland, and now lives across the harbour in Devonport. His 19th book of poems, Dreamy days & nothing done, was published in early 2012 and his sixth novel, Daisy Chains, was published in 2011. Ireland's other publications include two memoirs, a volume of short stories, a booklet On Getting Old and a discursive book on fishing, How to Catch a Fish. He has received several awards, which include the Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry, a Montana Award for history and biography, the A W Reed Award and a DLitt from Massey University.

Riemke Ensing
Riemke Ensing was born in Groningen, The Netherlands, in 1939. With her parents she immigrated to New Zealand at the age of twelve in 1951. At this stage of her life she spoke no English. She went to school first in Dargaville, then to Ardmore Teachers’ Training College, after which she taught for two years, returning to the College to lecture in English literature for a year. She again became a fulltime student and on graduating M.A.(Hons) in 1967, was appointed as a tutor in the English Department at the University of Auckland, where she taught till 1999. She has since been appointed an Honorary Research Fellow (Faculty of Arts) and in 2002 was a Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow. Her poetry is represented extensively in anthologies and her work has appeared in many publications both in New Zealand and overseas.