David Eggleton (born 1952) is a New Zealand

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

, critic and writer. Eggleton has been awarded the Ockham New Zealand Book Award for poetry and in 2019 was appointed

New Zealand Poet Laureate The New Zealand Poet Laureate is a poet appointed by the National Library of New Zealand to represent New Zealand's community of poets, to promote and advocate for poetry, and to produce a number of published works during their two-year tenure as ...

, a title he held until 2022. Eggleton's work has appeared in a multitude of publications in New Zealand and he has released over 18 poetry books (1986–2001) with a variety of publishers, including

Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

Early life

Born in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

and of mixed European,

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

n, and

Rotuma Rotuma is a Fijian dependency, consisting of Rotuma Island and nearby islets. The island group is home to a large and unique Polynesian indigenous ethnic group which constitutes a recognisable minority within the population of Fiji, known as " ...

n descent, Eggleton spent part his formative years in both

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

and Auckland, dropping out of school to take up performance music and poetry.Eggleton, David
", ''New Zealand Book Council. June 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2016. Eggleton later moved to Dunedin, where he has been based since the 1980s.

Literary career

Eggleton's creative output has been diverse, including mixed media recordings involving poetry and music, several volumes of poetry, histories of New Zealand music and photography, and a large number of literary reviews. He is also an established Art Critic, writing regularly for ''Art New Zealand'', which is New Zealand's major visual arts journal. He was the editor of New Zealand's premier literary journal, '' Landfall'', from 2010 to 2017. He is a six-time Montana New Zealand Reviewer of the Year. Other awards have included a Robert Burns Fellowship from the University of Otago in 1990, ''London Time Outs Street Poet of the Year (1985), the 2015 Janet Frame Literary Trust Award for Poetry,Kiwi poet David Eggleton reveals his inspirations
" ''stuff.co.nz'', 20 September 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2016. and in 2016 the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement (in poetry).2016 Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement: Winners Announced
" ''Creative NZ'', 10 October 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2017. His collection of poems, ''The Conch Trumpet'' (Otago University Press, 2015), won the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Award for poetry. In 2017 he received the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writers' Residency. Eggleton has also been apart of the Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival in 2017, 2019 and 2021. A video, ''For Art's Sake: Art and Politics. Performance Poet David Eggleton'', won the TV Arts Documentary prize in the 1997 Qantas Media Awards. In 2022 Eggleton was a guest at the Auckland Writers Festival. Ian Wedde (in the ''Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse'') describes Eggleton's poem ''Painting Mount Taranaki'' as "...inside its history. Its language is a confident if erratic blend of vernacular, lyric, and high demotic; this confidence allows for mobile and ironic cross-currents animating the texture and depth of the language throughout." Eggleton's poems are frequently iconoclastic or anti-establishment, using mockery to point out the shortcomings of political and social systems, and when read are delivered at a fast, fluent tempo.David Eggleton
, ''The Poetry Archive'', Retrieved 26 February 2016.

Recordings and publications

Recordings

*''Versifier'' (2002) Yellow Eye Music *''Baxter: Poems by James K. Baxter'' (2000) National Radio Music *''Seeing Voices: New Zealand Poets Reading'' (1999) Auckland University Press *''Poetry Demon'' (1993) Jayrem Records *''Wrap Up'' (1987) Partisan Productions

Video

*''The Cloud Forest'' (2002) (short film; Eggleton co-editor) *''Teleprompter'' (2001) (short film; Eggleton co-editor)

Books

*''Leaps and Bounds'' – ESAW (2021) (poetry chapbook) *''Throw Net: Upena Ho'olei'' – Fernbank Studio Te Whanganui-a-Tara (2021) (poetry chapbook) *''The Wilder Years: Selected Poems'' – Otago University Press (2021) (poetry) *''Edgeland and Other Poems'' – Otago University Press (2018) (poetry) *''SNAP'' - Otakou Press (2017) – (poetry chapbook) *''The Conch Trumpet'' – Otago University Press (2015) (poetry) *''Time of the Icebergs'' – Otago University Press (2010) (poetry) *''Towards Aotearoa: A Short History of Twentieth Century New Zealand Art'' – Reed (2007) *''Into the Light: A History of New Zealand Photography'' – Craig Potton (2006) *''Fast Talker'' – Auckland University Press (2006) (poetry) *''Ready to Fly: The Story of New Zealand Rock Music'' – Craig Potton (2003) *''Seasons: Four Essays on the New Zealand Year'' – Craig Potton (2001) *''Rhyming Planet'' – Steele Roberts (2001) (poetry) *''Here on Earth'' – Craig Potton (1999) (an anthology of New Zealand landscape writing; Eggleton editor) *''Empty Orchestra'' – Auckland University Press (1995) (poetry) *''People of the Land'' – Penguin (1988) (poetry) *''After Tokyo'' – ESAW (1987) (short fiction) *''South Pacific Sunrise'' – Penguin (1986) (poetry)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eggleton, David 20th-century New Zealand poets 20th-century New Zealand male writers 1952 births New Zealand people of Rotuman descent New Zealand people of Tongan descent New Zealand Poets Laureate Writers from Auckland Writers from Dunedin Living people 21st-century New Zealand poets New Zealand male poets 21st-century New Zealand male writers