Glenn Colquhoun

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Dr. Glenn Colquhoun, born in Papakura, Auckland in 1964, is a New Zealand poet. His third book, Playing God, won a Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry and Readers’ Choice in 2003. In 2006, Playing God was awarded a New Zealand Booksellers Platinum Award for selling 5000 copies. Glenn won the Glenn Schaeffer Prize in Modern Letters in 2004. His first book, The Art of Walking Upright, won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry.

Colquhoun's first book of poems, The Art of Walking Upright, was published in 1999. It is a love letter to the people of Te Tii, the Northland town where he was living at that time.

An Explanation of Poetry to My Father was published in 2001. Written in the middle of his work on Playing God, the book was a distraction for Colquhoun from that work. The poems are an explanation of why the son of a builder would go and write poetry.

Playing God, Colquhuoun’s third book, was published in 2002 to critical acclaim and popular support. Colquhoun describes the book as being “a bit like Shortland Street for poetry” (as told to this article's author), because the medical subject matter appealed to a wide audience. It has sold 7000 copies in New Zealand and in 2007 was published in the UK.

How We Fell (2006) is a collection of love poems written to Colquhoun’s ex-wife. It is the candid story of a ten-year relationship.

Glenn Colquhoun currently practices medicine on the Kapiti Coast. He lives in Waikawa Beach with his 3-year-old daughter Olive. At the time of writing Glenn is working on a sequence of poems entwining aspects of Irish mythology with aspects of Maori mythology.

[edit] Published poetry

The Art of Walking Upright, 1999.

An Explanation of Poetry to My Father, 2001.

Playing God, 2002.

How We Fell, 2006.

[edit] Other Works

Uncle Glenn and Me, 1999 (children’s picturebook)

Uncle Glenn and Me Too, 2004 (children’s picturebook)

Mr Short, Mr Thin, Mr Bald and Mr Dog, 2005 (children’s picturebook)

Jumping Ship, 2004 (essay)