Bernadette Hall (born 1945) is a New Zealand playwright and poet.

Biography

Hall was born in 1945 in

Alexandra, New Zealand Alexandra (Māori: ''Manuherikia'' or ''Areketanara'') is a town in the Central Otago district of the South Island of New Zealand. It is on the banks of the Clutha River (at the confluence of the Manuherikia River), on State Highway 8, by r ...

. She was raised in what she describes as "a small-city Catholic community that was proud, theatrical and pretty much enclosed." After a career as a teacher of Latin and

classical studies Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

, she started writing full-time in her forties. She has held residencies at both Canterbury University and Victoria University and is widely published.Bernadette Hall biography at the IIML
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biography at the

New Zealand Electronic Text Center The New Zealand Electronic Text Collection (NZETC; mi, Te Pūhikotuhi o Aotearoa) is a freely accessible online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials that are held by the Victoria University of Wellington Library ...

She spent 10 years as the editor of ''Takahe'' magazine and five as the poetry editor of '' The Press'', Christchurch's main daily newspaper. Hall's poetry collection ''The Lustre Jug'' was a finalist in the 2010 New Zealand Post Book Awards. She is the patron of Hagley Writers' Institute.

Works

Plays

* ''Glad and the Angels'' (1992)Bernadette Hall
biography at the

New Zealand Book Council Read NZ Te Pou Muramura (formerly the New Zealand Book Council) is a not-for-profit organisation that presents a wide range of programmes to promote books and reading in New Zealand. History It was established in 1972 as a response to UNESCO's ...

* ''The Clothesline'' (1993)Bernadette Hall bibliography at The NZ Literature File
* ''The Girl Who Sings Waterfalls'' (1992)

Poetry collections

* ''Heartwood'' (Caxton Press, Christchurch, 1989)Bernadette Hall
biography at the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre. * ''of Elephants etc.'' (Untold Press, 1990) * ''The Persistent Levitator'' (Victoria University Press, 1994) * ''Still Talking'' (Victoria University Press, 1997) * ''Settler Dreaming'' (Victoria University Press, 2001) * ''The Merino Princess: Selected Poems'' (Victoria University Press, 2004) * ''The Ponies'' (Victoria University Press, 2007) * ''The Lustre Jug'' (Victoria University Press, 2009) * ''Life & Customs'' (Victoria University Press, 2014)

Awards and honours

* 1991 – Writer in residence at the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...

* 1996 – Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago * 2004 – Antarctica New Zealand Arts Fellowship * 2006 – Writer's fellowship at Victoria University * 2015 –

Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement is a New Zealand literary award established in 2003 by the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand), the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government. Each ...

in Poetry * 2017 – Appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature, in the

2017 New Year Honours The 2017 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours were awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

References

1945 births 20th-century New Zealand poets New Zealand women poets New Zealand schoolteachers People from Alexandra, New Zealand New Zealand editors New Zealand women editors New Zealand magazine editors Women magazine editors New Zealand Roman Catholics 20th-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights Living people New Zealand women dramatists and playwrights International Writing Program alumni Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit 21st-century New Zealand poets 21st-century New Zealand women writers 20th-century New Zealand women writers {{NewZealand-writer-stub