In vain, I have trawled the email highway of Christchurch City Libraries in an effort to “out” some closet poets amongst all the erudite librarians out there, but the only contributors to Leaving the Red Zone: Poems from the Canterbury Earthquakes, an anthology edited by James Norcliffe and Joanna Preston, that I could find were myself and Greg O'Connell. Greg works at Linwood Library and I work at New Brighton.
I know of at least one other poet working at the library - Dylan Kemp.
The anthology was launched on Monday 29 February at The Laboratory pub in Lincoln and the launch was extremely well attended. Mayor Lianne Dalziel gave an introductory speech before a packed crowd of poetry lovers and then, because there was only limited time and 87 contributors, some contributing poets were picked from a hat to read their contributions. I was one of the lucky ones who got picked from the hat to read at the launch which was an honour.
So get out there and grab yourself a copy from any good bookstore and get the real story behind the earthquakes - from September 2010 until the present day.
More on Leaving the Red Zone
- Read poet Joanna Preston's report on the launch
- Listen to editors Joanna Preston and James Norcliffe on RNZ Sunday Morning
- Writer and poet Helen Lowe shared Tuesday & Poetry: More Lines From “Leaving The Red Zone’
- Joanna suggests the method of purchase that will contribute most to the charity is to get one direct from the publishers Clerestory Press.
Discover more earthquake poetry in our collection:
Andrew Bell
New Brighton Library
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