Victoria University Press, 2019
(resissued Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2024)

I put the names in the hat and picked out Ruth Arnison to gift a copy of Fleur Adcock’s Collected Poems.

Ruth included this delightful note:

I first wrote to Fleur in 2006 after coming across her poem, “Flight, with Mountains,” in memory of my uncle Dave Herron.

I thought a portion of Fleur’s response might interest you, –

” It was very significant for me: it was one of the first major, mature poems I ever finished, and it won the Wellington Festival Poetry Prize (£50, a huge amount at the time — I bought a tricycle for my son Andrew and a suit to wear to the prizegiving in Wellington, and still had £25 left over).  More significantly, it restored my faith in the possibility that I might become a real poet, which was pretty shaky at the time (I think it always is).”

You can read the Poetry Shelf tribute here, which includes my slowly unfolding email conversation with Fleur.

There will be an informal reading of Fleur’s poetry at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University on Friday 18th October, with readings from Tru Paraha, Harry Ricketts, Chris Price, more. Details here.