Briar Wood

Briar Wood 'is an an Aorearoa New Zealand writer, poet and academic who was born in Taumarunui, and grew up in South Auckland. She gained an MA in Literature at the University of Auckland, and at the University of Sussex in the UK she was awarded a PhD in 1990 for her research on women's writing of the modernist era. Briar lived in London, teaching literature and creative writing for many years. Returning to Northland in Aotearoa New Zealand, she now combines travel, occasional lecturing and a focus on writing. Briar's poetry embraces multiple languages (particularly Te Reo Māori and English), and deploys multifarious, international fauna and flora references. Her poetry has been widely published and anthologised in national and international journals and anthologies including Ora Nui (2011, and 2017), Australian Studies 15.2 (2000), Pūrākau: Māori Myths, Puna Wai Kōrero: An Anthology of Māori Poetry in English, Wave Hub: New Poetry From Cornwall, Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English. Her own collection of poetry Welcome Beltane (Palores Press, 2012) which made poetic links between famiy histories and contemporary places, was awarded the 2013 Holyer An Gof prize for poetry. Her next collection Rāwāki (Anahera Press, 2017) was short listed for the 2018 Ockham New Zealand poetry prize. Rāwāhi is centred around Northland places where her Te Hikutū ki Hokianga, Ngāpuhi Nui whakapapa resonates with ecological concerns. It has been translated in Ukrainian by Krok publishers. In her latest collection, A Book of Rongo and Te Rangahau (Anahera Press, 2022), Briar reimagines the lives of Rongo and Te Rangahau, 19th century wāhine toa, tūpuna of Ngā puhi, in radiant verse. The collection also stretches across time into today's world with poetry about contemporary Te Tai Tokerau, and covers issues ranging from politics and race relations to sharply observed poems about local people and places.'

Biographical sources

  • "Briar Wood ANZL Member" ANZL Academy of New Zealand Literature Te Whare Mātātuhi o Aotearoa. https://www.anzliterature.com/member/briar-wood/

    Non-fiction

  • Heka He Va'a Mei Popo: Sitting on a Rotten Branch of the Breadfruit Tree: Reading the Poetry of Konai Helu Thaman. Women's Studies Journal 14.2 (1998).
  • Shamanism in Oceania: The Poetry of Albert Wendt. Reading the 'New' Literature in a Postcolonial Era. Ed. Susheila Nasta. Suffolk: Boydell and Brewer, 2000.
  • From the Sublime to the Pacific: the poetry of Alistair Campbell. New Literatures Review 38 (Winter 2002).
  • The Words Are There Before Us: A Reading of Twentieth Century Anglo Cornish Poems Written by Women. Cornish Studies 14 (2006).
  • Freedom and Responsibility: Narrating Māori Women's Lives in Patricia Grace's Cousins. Hecate 34.1 (2008).
  • Science in the Poetry of Oceania. Dreadlocks in Oceania Conference publication, 2011.

  • Other

  • Back on the Road Again: After Glorified Scales' Moving Worlds, 2002.
  • In Spirits' Voices: An Interview With Steven Winduo. Journal of Postcolonial Writing 42.1 (May 2006). 84-93.
  • 'Steven Winduo an Briar Wood met with mutual nthusiasm at the Oceania Writers SPACLALS conference in Fiji at the University of the South Pacific in1998 and corresponded about poetry, Pacific shamanism and rivers. The interview was conducted from various locations via cyberspace, over a number of years.' Journal of Postcolonial Writing Vol. 42. No. 1 May 2006, pp.84-93.

    • Poetry

  • Lightfast. Stand Magazine. 9.2 (2009).
  • Blue House Garden. Stand Magazine. 9.2 (2009).
  • Between the Flags. Wildes Licht Ed. Dieter Riemenschneider. Tranzlit, 2010.
  • Welcome Beltane. Palores Press, 2012.
  • This collection of poetry was awarded the Holyer An Gof Prize fo Poetry in 2013.
  • Rāwāhi. Anahera Press, 2017.
  • A poetry collection by Briar Wood which was short listed for the Ockham New Zealand Poetry Prize in 2018.
  • A Book of Rongo and Te Rangahau. Anahera Press, 2022.
  • Poetry collection 'which stretches across time into today's world with poetry about contemporary Te Tai Tokerau, and covers issues ranging from politics and race reation to sharply observed poems about local people and places.'
  • Kuramārōtini. Rāwāhi. Anahera Press, 2017. Rpt. in Te Awa o Kupu. Eds. Vaughan Rapatahana & Kiri Piahana-Wong. New Zealand: Penguin Random House New Zealand, 2023. 38-39