Riemke Ensing

Riemke Ensing (born 1939) is a Dutch-born New Zealand poet.

She has published and edited numerous books and is notable for synthesising European and New Zealand influences in her work.

Ensing was born in Groningen, The Netherlands in 1939.

She immigrated to New Zealand in 1951 at age twelve.

She studied at Ardmore Teachers' Training College, then taught for two years, returning to the College to lecture in English literature for a year.

Ensing earned a master's degree in 1967, and was appointed to a position in Literature in the English Department at the University of Auckland.

In 1977, Ensing edited Private Gardens: An Anthology of New Zealand Women Poets.

It was the first anthology of women's verse published in New Zealand.

Her earlier poems showed European influences but during the 1980s and 1990s New Zealand influences and voices became more prominent.

Ensing has an interest in art, publishing catalogues of exhibitions by Stanley Palmer in 1992 and Len Castle in 2008.

She established her reputation with three books published in 1995: Dear Mr Sargeson was written in homage after visiting the cottage of the writer Frank Sargeson in Takapuna; Like I have seen the dark green ladder climbing was written about the paintings of Eion Stevens; in Gloria-in-Excelsis, Ensing edited the poems of Gloria Rawlinson.

There she taught until 1999 when she took early retirement and was later appointed an Honorary Research Fellow (Faculty of Arts).

In 2002 she was awarded a Sargeson Fellowship, sponsored by the law firm Buddle Findlay.

She received an Honours List Award from the New Zealand Society of Authors in 2019.