Could you tell us about the Canterbury Poets’ Collective?
The collective has been in existence for over 30 years. It was set up by a few local poets around 1989 – Karen McNabb, Jeffrey Harpeng and David Howard were the founders – and it has kept going continuously since then.
The collective runs two readings a year – one in March and one in October, for a month of Thursday evenings. We bring in poets from all over New Zealand to perform alongside local Christchurch poets, and we fundraise to pay them. We also have an open mic before the guest poets read.
Are there other events or activities which the collective organises?
We also run a “Lambing Season” for young poets up to 25 years of age. It takes the same format as our reading series with guest poets reading and an open mic. It takes place in August as part of National Poetry Day in New Zealand.
There is also a publishing arm, Sudden Valley Press which publishes books of Canterbury and South Island poets. It runs a biannual competition for South Island poets – The John O’Connor Award for a first collection of poetry. Sudden Valley Press is an independent publisher and one of the main Christchurch publishers of poetry as the local University Press doesn’t publish poetry collections.
How is the collective run?
There is a committee which looks after the organisation of all the activities. We charge for the readings to help cover the costs, and we’re aiming to be the hub of Canterbury poetry.
We ran a massive fund-raising campaign last year, which was really successful, thanks to a community that cares about poetry. It has enabled us to not only keep running in a cost-of-living crisis, but to think more widely about future events and activities.
Are there other poetry groups or events in your area?
Yes. There are a few groups that meet monthly – Catalyst which runs an open mic event, a Late Night Poetry Hour, an intimate Speakeasy open mic. There’s an annual Reader’s and Writers’ festival (WORD Christchurch) as well as plenty of ongoing book launches and other one-off events.
Is there a connection between the South Island and the North Island?
Wellington is an important city in that its university has a well-established Masters in Literature, producing a lot of new writers and poets alongside some big and popular New Zealand names. They publish a lot and they have a substantial marketing arm behind them. Auckland too has a long-running University Press, outputting new and established writers as well.
The National Radio also runs out of Auckland and Wellington, so there is much more opportunity and mention of the North Island, and that is despite the fact that Christchurch is the second largest city!
However, Canterbury Poets’ Collective is growing and establishing a hub on the national stage; Christchurch also has a new publisher of chapbooks (Pukapuka Pekapeka), and I understand our local university has opened their Masters in Literature course again.
South Island’s biggest southern city Dunedin also has a University Press that cares about poetry and produces many award-winning books alongside a Dunedin poetry collective, the Octagon Collective, that runs regular events; many of our award-winning poets come from and live in Christchurch and the South Island, alongside plenty of up and coming poets and writers; along with the number of regular poetry groups and events I’ve mentioned, we say, watch out North Island (and and world), here we are!
