The latest issue of broadsheet 29, May 2022, features the distinguished Auckland writer and poet Kevin Ireland and features a selection of recent poems, mainly from his 2021 collection Just Like That.
Poets included are: Peter Bland, Petrus Borel (trans.), Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, Bernard Brown, Johanna Emeney, Riemke Ensing, Brian Turner, Mark Pirie, Vincent O’Sullivan, Bill Manhire, C K Stead and Dorit Weisman (trans.).
Editor Mark Pirie writes in the Preface:
“Kevin Ireland obe has published novels, short stories, memoirs, a book on fishing and another on growing old. Awards include an honorary doctorate, the 2004 Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement and the 2006 A.W. Reed Award for his contribution to New Zealand writing.
It’s an honour to feature his work in broadsheet. Ireland was a favourite of mine when I first began writing poetry in the 1990s. Widely anthologised, he wrote accessible, witty, satirical and well-crafted poetry moving with ease between rhyming forms and free forms. Early poems like ‘Striking a Pose’ still come to mind years after they were written.
I asked Kevin to write a brief statement about his work included here:
I’m delighted to be in such good company and privileged that so many of our best poets have responded with wonderful examples of their art, and that the poems the remarkable Mark Pirie has broadly and generously selected to represent my own new writing are straight from Just Like That, a book published last year by Quentin Wilson Publishing. I have applied myself to regular writing over a lifetime because it has many appearances of a true job with a real sense of purpose, so later this year Quentin Wilson will bring out my third memoir, which was not just a pleasure as an effort to tidy up some obscure, dusty cupboards, but as a larger experiment in finding an interesting method and a form. It is to be called A Month at the Back of My Brain.
I worked with Kevin Ireland to invite contributors for his special issue, including friends from many years in his writing-life. Those who replied and sent in work are included here: Peter Bland, C K Stead, Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, Riemke Ensing, Bill Manhire, Bernard Brown, Johanna Emeney, Brian Turner and Vincent O’Sullivan.
A few contributors are outside of the feature. I was delighted to receive some work by Dorit Weisman translated into English from the Hebrew, and a translation of Petrus Borel by New Zealanders (and brothers) John Gallas/Kurt Gänzl.
I hope you enjoy this issue which recognises a master of the art in New Zealand.
Mark Pirie,
Wellington, May 2022”
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