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Elizabeth Smither

{{short description|New Zealand poet and writer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}

Elizabeth Edwina Smither {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MNZM}} (born 15 September 1941) is a New Zealand poet and writer.

Life and career

Smither was born in New Plymouth, and worked there part-time as a librarian.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Ricketts |first=Harry |editor1-last=Robinson |editor1-first=Roger |editor2-last=Wattie |editor2-first=Nelson |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature |title=Smither, Elizabeth |url=https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/kotare/article/download/616/428 |access-date=5 December 2021 |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1917-3519-6 |oclc=865265749 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001}}{{cite encyclopedia |last=Jensen |first=Kai |editor1-last=Hamilton |editor1-first=Ian |editor2-last=Noel-Tod |editor2-first=Jeremy |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry |title=Smither, Elizabeth |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199640256.001.0001/acref-9780199640256-e-1127 |access-date=5 December 2021 |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191744525}}

Her first collection of poetry, Here Come the Clouds, was published in 1975, when she was in her mid-thirties. She has since published over fifteen poetry collections, as well as several short story collections and novels.{{cite web |title=Smither, Elizabeth |url=https://www.read-nz.org/writer/smither-elizabeth/ |website=Read NZ Te Pou Muramura |access-date=5 December 2021}} Her work has won numerous notable awards, including three times the top poetry award at the New Zealand Book Awards.{{cite web |title=Past Winners by Letter: S |url=https://www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards/past-winners-by-author?letter=S |website=New Zealand Book Awards Trust |access-date=5 December 2021}} In 2002, she was named the New Zealand Poet Laureate.

Harry Ricketts, writing for The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, describes her strength as being "the short poem, usually but not always unrhymed, witty, stylish and intellectually curious". He also notes that her poetry tends to feature figures from literature and legends, as well as Catholicism.

Awards

Bibliography

{{Expand list|date=March 2017}}

=Poetry=

==Collections==

  • {{cite book |author=Smither, Elizabeth |title=Here come the clouds : poems |publisher=A. Taylor |year=1975}}
  • You’re Very Seductive William Carlos Williams (1978)
  • The Sarah Train (1980)
  • The Legend of Marcello Mastroianni's wife (1981)
  • Casanova's Ankle (1981)
  • Shakespeare Virgins (1983)
  • Professor Musgrove's Canary (1986)
  • Gorilla/ Guerilla (1986)
  • Animaux (1988)
  • A Pattern of Marching (1989)
  • A Cortège of Daughters (1993)
  • The Tudor Style: Poems New and Selected (1993)
  • {{cite book| title=A question of gravity: selected poems| publisher=Arc Publications| year=2004| isbn=978-1-900072-75-5 }}
  • {{cite book |author=Smither, Elizabeth |author-mask=1 |title=The year of adverbs |publisher=Auckland University Press |year=2007 }}
  • Horse Playing the Accordion (Ahadada Books, Tokyo & Toronto, 2009)
  • The Love of One Orange
  • {{cite book |author=Smither, Elizabeth |author-mask=1 |title=The blue coat |publisher=Auckland University Press |year=2013 }}
  • {{cite book |author=Smither, Elizabeth |author-mask=1 |others=Illustrated by Kathryn Madill |title=Ruby Duby Du |publisher=Cold Hub Press |year=2013 }}

==Anthologies==

  • {{cite book| title=An anthology of New Zealand poetry in English|editor1=Jenny Bornholdt |editor2=Gregory O'Brien |editor3=Mark Williams| publisher=Oxford University Press New Zealand | year=1997| isbn=978-0-19-558338-0 }}
  • {{cite book| title=An Anthology of twentieth century New Zealand poetry| editor=Vincent O'Sullivan| publisher=Oxford University Press| year=1987| isbn=978-0-19-558163-8| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/anthologyoftwent0000unse}}

==List of poems==

class='wikitable sortable' width='90%'
width=25%|Title

!|Year

!|First published

!|Reprinted/collected

Last sister

|

|{{cite journal |author=Smither, Elizabeth |date=n.d.|title=Last sister |journal=Inertia |volume=4 |url=http://www.inertiamagazine.com/i4/smither.html }}

|

A cortege of daughters

|

|{{cite journal |author=Smither, Elizabeth |date=n.d.|title=A cortege of daughters |journal=Inertia |volume=4 |url=http://www.inertiamagazine.com/i4/smither.html }}

|

An error on a quiz programme

|

|{{cite journal |author=Smither, Elizabeth |date=n.d.|title=An error on a quiz programme |journal=Inertia |volume=4 |url=http://www.inertiamagazine.com/i4/smither.html }}

|

Two security guards talking about Jupiter

|2007

|{{cite journal |author=Smither, Elizabeth |date=April 2007 |title=Two security guards talking about Jupiter |journal=Snorkel |volume=5 |url=http://snorkel.org.au/005/smither.html }}

|

The self, for Antigone Kefala

|2008

|{{cite journal |author=Smither, Elizabeth |date=March 2008 |title=The self, for Antigone Kefala |journal=Foam:e |volume=5 |url=http://www.foame.org/Issue5/poems/smither.html }}

|

Plaits

|2008

|{{cite journal |author=Smither, Elizabeth |date=March 2008 |title=Plaits |journal=Foam:e |volume=5 |url=http://www.foame.org/Issue5/poems/smither.html }}

|

Night horse

|2014

|{{cite journal |author=Smither, Elizabeth |date=Autumn 2014 |title=Night horse |journal=Meanjin |volume=73 |issue=1 |pages=16 }}

|

=Novels=

  • First Blood (1983)
  • Brother-love Sister-love (1986)
  • The Sea Between Us (2003) 2004 Finalist for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards

=Short stories=

  • Nights at the Embassy (1990)
  • Mr Fish (1994)

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • [http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/name-202184.html "Elizabeth Smither", New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre]
  • [https://www.anzliterature.com/interview/interview-elizabeth-smither Interview at Academy of New Zealand Literature]

{{s-start}}

{{s-culture}}

{{s-bef|before=Hone Tuwhare}}

{{s-ttl|title=New Zealand Poet Laureate|years=2001–2003}}

{{s-aft|after=Brian Turner}}

{{s-end}}

{{New Zealand Poets Laureate}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smither, Elizabeth}}

Category:1941 births

Category:Living people

Category:Meanjin people

Category:Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Category:New Zealand women poets

Category:New Zealand poets laureate