Richard Reeve at Upukerora
Richard Reeve is an Otago-based poet, editor and reviewer. His five collections of poetry to date are Dialectic of Mud (Auckland UP, 2001), The Life and the Dark (Auckland UP, 2004), In Continents (Auckland UP, 2008), The Among (Maungatua Press, 2008) and Generation Kitchen (Otago UP, 2015). Richard holds a PhD on ‘New Zealand poetic reality’, and is a lawyer by profession. While his poetry often is philosophical, he describes himself as ‘as a poet of visceral themes and energetic language.’
Much of Richard’s work is informed by an ontological environmentalism. Although he regularly writes in free verse, his poetry as a whole shows a loyalty to poetic form. Nicholas Reid has written: ‘Reeve’s own engagement with the raw matter of the world is evident… Another is his awareness of form – not a slavish adherence to traditional poetic forms, but an ability to reference them as he presents his own worldview. In this he is almost unique among his New Zealand contemporaries.’
New Zealand Book Council profile page
Auckland University Press author page
Otago University Press author page
takahē review of Generation Kitchen (April, 2016)
Generation Kitchen (Otago UP, 2015)
The Among (Maungatua Press, 2008)
In Continents (Auckland UP, 2008)
The Life and the Dark (Auckland UP, 2004)
Dialect of Mud (Auckland UP, 2001)
Our Wild Heart – The Possibility of Wilderness in Aotearoa (Co-editor with Mick Abbott: Otago UP, 2011)
'One of writing’s greatest magics is to allow us – to use Kiri Piahana-Wong’s phrase – to slide outside the trap of time.' - David Taylor