Alistair Campbell (poet)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, ONZM, (born 25 June 1925) is a poet and novelist.

He was born on Rarotonga, Cook Islands, but has lived for most of his life in New Zealand mainly around the Wellington region, and for several decades in Pukerua Bay, Porirua.

Born Alistair Campbell but later added 'Te Ariki' after going back to the Cook Islands and discovering his grandfather had ties to chiefdom. So in his honour he added Te Ariki or "the chief" to his name. His father was a New Zealand Scot, while his mother was Cook Island Maori from the island of Penrhyn. He grew up in an orphanage in Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand with his brother following the death of his mother to TB and his father who literally drank himself to death (both in 1933). He would later move up to Wellington and become a member of the Wellington Group in 1950s. The group was just an affiliation of a number of writers who mostly shared a common opposition to Allen Curnow's, another notable New Zealand writer, ideas and writings.

His first wife was the poet Fleur Adcock from whom he was later divorced. His second wife, Aline Margaret (Meg) (1927-2007) was also a poet.

From 1976 till 1979 he was the President of the New Zealand branch of PEN-International.

His poem "The Return" was set to electronic music by Douglas Lilburn.

1 Works
- 1.1 Poetry
- 1.2 Other work
2 External links

[edit] Works

[edit] Poetry

1950: Mine Eyes Dazzle, Christchurch: Pegasus Press, including "The Return" and "Elegy"
1963: Sanctuary of Spirits
1964: Wild Honey, London: Oxford University Press
1967: Blue Rain: Poems, Wellington: Wai-te-ata Press
1972: Kapiti : Selected Poems 1947-71. Christchurch : Pegasus Press
1975: Dreams, Yellow Lions
1980: The Dark Lord of Savaiki: Collected Poems, Christchurch: Hazard Press
1981: Collected Poems, Hazard, ISBN 1-877393-00-2
1985: Soul Traps, Pukerua Bay: Te Kotare Press
1992: Stone Rain: The Polynesian Strain, Aukland: Hazard Press
1996: Pocket Collected Poems, Christchurch: Hazard Press
1999: Gallipoli & Other Poems, Wellington: Wai-te-ata Press
2001: Maori Battalion: a poetic sequence, Wellington: Wai-te-ata Press
Poets in our youth: four letters in verse, being four letters in verse to John Mansfield Thomson, Harry Orsman, Pat Wilson and James K. Baxter; Wellington: Pemmican Press
Death and Tagua
Pocket: Collected Poems

[edit] Other work

1961: The Happy Summer, a novel for children
1965: The Proprietor, Radio play
1964: The Homecoming, a radio play

1966: The Suicide, a radio play
1970: When the Bough Breaks, a radio play
1984: Island to Island, memoir
1989: The Frigate Bird, novel, regional finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize
1991: Sidewinder, novel, Auckland: Reed Books
1993: Tia, novel, Auckland: Reed Books
1999: Fantasy With Witches, novel