An award-winning poet, academic, essayist and editor, Michele Leggott has published eight collections of poetry, including Milk & Honey (2005, 2006), Journey to Portugal (2007), Mirabile Dictu (2009) and Heartland (2014).

She edited Robin Hyde’s long poem The Book of Nadath (1999) and Young Knowledge: The Poems of Robin Hyde (2003). A major project since 2001 has been the development of the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre (nzepc) at the University of Auckland.

She was the inaugural New Zealand Poet Laureate 2007-09 and received a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2009 New Year Honours for Services to Poetry. In 2013 she was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry.