Bill Manhire

William Manhire (born 27 December 1946) is a New Zealand poet, short story writer, emeritus professor, and New Zealand's inaugural Poet Laureate (1997–1998).

His mother was from Scotland with a degree in science, and his father was a publican; they had met and married during World War II, and his mother sailed to New Zealand on a ship of war brides on Valentine's Day in 1946.

In the 1960s, while still an undergraduate at the University of Otago, Manhire had his first poems published in New Zealand journals, including notably the journal Landfall, then edited by Robin Dudding.

He attended Otago Boys' High School, and later the University of Otago in Dunedin where he received his B.A. in 1967, his M.A. (with honours) in 1968, and his M.Litt.

in 1970.

He went on to study Norse sagas at University College London (1970–73, M.Phil.).

As a young writer, Manhire sent some poetry to Charles Brasch; of this work, Manhire later said, "I can't remember the exact contents, but I think they had lines like 'I stalk the streets of the midnight city' and were full of soiled sheets and neon and terrible things like that".

He said he was "enormously encouraged" by Brasch's response, which encouraged him to keep trying and to take himself seriously as a writer.

Other writers Manhire met in Dunedin included Iain Lonie, Trevor Reeves and James K. Baxter.

While studying in London in the early 1970s he had poems published in British magazines.

His first book was a poem, Malady, published in 1970.

It consisted of just four words ("malady", "melody" and "my lady") arranged in patterns on the page, accompanied by drawings by artist Ralph Hotere, who had met Manhire in Dunedin while he was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow.

Manhire's second book, The Elaboration (1972), was also a collaboration with Hotere, and was published by Charles Brasch and Janet Paul.

Around this time, and while living in London, Manhire and fellow poet Kevin Cunningham set up the Amphedesma Press to publish their own and their friends' work, including poetry books by Ian Wedde and Bob Orr.

In 1973, after returning to New Zealand, Manhire began lecturing in the English department of Victoria University of Wellington, where he founded New Zealand's first creative writing course in 1975.

His creative writing course, which he taught for more than 25 years, had a major influence on New Zealand literature, with many well-known New Zealand writers having graduated, including Elizabeth Knox, Barbara Anderson and Jenny Bornholdt.

He founded New Zealand's first creative writing course at Victoria University of Wellington in 1975, founded the International Institute of Modern Letters in 2001, and has been a strong promoter of New Zealand literature and poetry throughout his career.

Many of New Zealand's leading writers graduated from his courses at Victoria.

Throughout his career Manhire has been a significant promoter of New Zealand poetry and other local writing, acting as editor of several compilations of New Zealand works, including NZ Listener Short Stories (1977), Some Other Country: New Zealand's Best Short Stories (with his wife Marion McLeod, 1984, with updated editions published in 1992, 1997 and 2007) and Six by Six: Short Stories by New Zealand's Best Writers (1989).

After his fifth book of poetry, Good Looks (1982), Manhire for a time switched to writing prose, publishing The Brain of Katherine Mansfield (1988), a book in the style of the Choose Your Own Adventure series with illustrations by Gregory O'Brien, and The New Land (1990), a collection of satirical short stories.

In 1986 he wrote a critical study of fellow New Zealand writer Maurice Gee.

His collection of New Zealand poetry, 100 New Zealand Poems (1993), proved particularly popular, and was subsequently expanded to become 121 New Zealand Poems (2005).

Mutes & Earthquakes (1997) was an anthology of works by his former students; the introduction by Manhire begins with two pieces of advice: "1. Write what you know, and / 2. Write what you don't know".

In 1998, Manhire went to Antarctica for several weeks with poet Chris Orsman and painter Nigel Brown, as part of the Artists to Antarctica programme run by Antarctica New Zealand.

The experience inspired a number of poems which formed the basis of his collection What to Call Your Child (1999), as well as a subsequent anthology of writing about Antarctica called The Wide White Page: Writers Imagine Antarctica (2004) which he edited and introduced.

He was a founding publisher of the online Best New Zealand Poems series, which began in 2000.

For many years he presented a poetry segment on the Kim Hill Show on Radio New Zealand.

From 2001 to 2013 he was the inaugural and founding director of the International Institute of Modern Letters, which offers an MA and Ph.D. in creative writing, as well as a range of specialised undergraduate workshops.

Students of the Institute have included Eleanor Catton, Catherine Chidgey and Hinemoana Baker.

Manhire has published a number of poetry collections, including notably his Collected Poems (2001).

His poetry is known for word-play, experimentation and his ironic and whimsical sense of humour.

Critic Iain Sharp writes that Manhire's reputation "rests on a solid, seriously intentioned body of work, notable for its oblique lyricism and sense of wonder at the strangeness of both life and language".

In his memoir Under the Influence (2003), he described growing up in different small town South Island pubs.

For the 25th anniversary of the Erebus air disaster in 2004, Manhire wrote the poem "Erebus Voices", which was read by Sir Edmund Hillary at the commemorative service at Scott Base, Antarctica.

The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature (2006) states that he is "recognised as among the two or three finest New Zealand poets of his generation", and literary critic Peter Simpson has observed that Manhire has "probably done more to widen the audience for poetry in New Zealand than any other individual".

Manhire was born in Invercargill.

To mark his 60th birthday in 2006, Victoria University Press and Sport published the limited edition Manhire at 60: A Book for Bill.

He has received many notable awards including a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in 2007 and an Arts Foundation Icon Award in 2018.

In 2016 the institute's building was named the Bill Manhire House in recognition of his contribution to the university and to New Zealand literature.

His successor Damien Wilkins said on the occasion that Manhire's name "is synonymous with creative writing at Victoria".