New take on New Zealand’s classic literature

university-of-waikato

Thu Nov 07 2013 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

New take on New Zealand’s classic literature

Thursday, 7 November 2013, 4:31 pm
Press Release: University of Waikato

7 November, 2014

New take on New Zealand’s classic literature

Poet and literary historian Dr John Newton has been named University of Waikato writer in residence for 2014.

Dr Newton will be working on two books while based at Waikato. One a book of poems, the other he says will be a fresh take on New Zealand writing in the mid-20th century.

“I’ve already done some preliminary work on the history project,” says Dr Newton. “I’m conscious that the history of New Zealand writing has fallen into eclipse. I’ll be exploring the impact of the Second World War on New Zealand literature in a way I hope non-specialist readers will enjoy reading. We still have a lot to learn from our own ‘classic’ literature.”

The new book of poems he’ll be writing has the working title Road Sign with Bullet Holes. It’s a suite of four “or perhaps five” long poems exploring the unofficial history of romanticism.

Dr Newton knew as young as 13 or 14 that he wanted to be a poet and says he was lucky his English teachers encouraged him to pursue it. “I wrote my first book of poems as an undergraduate at the University of Canterbury, but it was another 25 years before I wrote another.” Lives of the Poets was published in 2010 and Family Songbook came out this year.

In 2010 Dr Newton also published The Double Rainbow: James K Baxter, Ngāti Hau and the Jerusalem Commune. He interviewed former followers and members of the local community to get insiders’ perspectives on Baxter and the commune. Writing in the Waikato Times, reviewer Peter Dornhauf said: “Double Rainbow is a scholarly, readable and fascinating account of events at the tipping point in our cultural history.”

Dr Newton will leave his home on Waiheke Island in February to take up his Waikato residency.

ENDS

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