Manifesto Aotearoa 101 Political Poems

by Neale, Emma; Temple, Philip

• ISBN13: 9780947522469
• ISBN10: 0947522468
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2017-07-01
• Publisher: Otago University Press

Summary

A poem is a vote. It chooses freedom of imagination, freedom of critical thought, freedom of speech. A collection of political poems in its very essence argues for the power of the democratic voice. Here New Zealand poets from diverse cultures, young and old, new and seasoned, from the Bay of Islands to Bluff, rally for justice on everything from a degraded environment to systemically embedded poverty; from the long, painful legacy of colonialism to explosive issues of sexual consent. Communally these writers show that political poems can be the most vivid and eloquent calls for empathy, for action and revolution, even for a simple calling to account.

Author Biography

Emma Neale, who was born in Dunedin, has written six novels – Night Swimming, Little Moon, Relative Strangers, Double Take, Fosterling and Billy Bird – and a number of poetry collections, and has edited anthologies of both short stories and poetry. Philip Temple is an award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction, often on subjects associated with New Zealand history and the natural world. He also won an award for his influential writing on electoral reform during the 1992–93 MMP campaign.