Mark Pirie

February 2020 sees the release of an anthology I compiled of the winners of the ESAW Poetry Prize, 2007-2019.

It is published in the relaunched ESAW Mini Series (No. 36).

The winners are: Evelyn Conlon 2007, Will Leadbeater 2008, Jill Chan 2009, Robin Fry 2010, Barry Southam 2011, Jeanne Bernhardt 2016, Mary Maringikura Campbell 2017, Bill Dacker 2018 and Jeremy Roberts 2019.

Here is the link to the publisher's blog:
https://michaeloleary.wordpress.com/2020/02/06/esaw-publishes-the-esaw-poetry-prize-anthology/

In December, a new anthology of Science Fiction and speculative poetry, Star Words, compiled by Tim Jones and myself featured in the relaunched ESAW mini series.

We compiled the A6 booklet anthology from poems read on 30 October 2019 at the 10th anniversary reading for Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand, winner of the Vogel Award for Best Collected Work 2009. Tim Jones and I co-edited Voyagers together. The event was held at Vic Books, Lambton Quay.

Contributors to Star Words include Janis Freegard, Tim Jones, Harvey Molloy, Vivienne Plumb, Nick Ascroft, Margaret Jeune, Tabatha Wood, Tony Hopkins,  Michael O’Leary and myself.

We have dedicated the booklet to the memory of  B. E. Turner, technical editor of the ESAW Mini Series, d. October 2019.

Here's the link to the publisher's blog:
https://michaeloleary.wordpress.com/2019/12/15/esaw-publishes-star-words-mini-book-anthology/

In May and July, my publishing company HeadworX released two new poetry books: Collected Poems 1981-2016 by Michael O'Leary and Boots: A Selection of Football Poetry 1890-2017.

O'Leary's Collected Poems is a major compilation of his work to date, spanning 35 years of his writing-life, and at 260 pages a considerable editing feat on my part.

Boots is an anthology of football poetry by international contributors, which was first published as a special football issue of my periodical broadsheet. This new edition features new material found in the past four years, including poems by the late Dannie Abse and Alan Ross (renowned UK poets)

It's a real achievement to publish both of these titles.

For more details on each book, please visit the HeadworX website:

Collected Poems 1981-2016 by Michael O'Leary

http://headworx.co.nz/poetry/collected

Boots: A Selection of Football Poetry by Mark Pirie

http://headworx.co.nz/poetry/boots

In September, my new book of selected poems in five sets, Rock and Roll, was published overseas by exciting and innovative Australian publisher Bareknuckle Books in Brisbane.

I was delighted to be included in their new Bareknuckle Poets Pocket Series, as well as in their annual anthologies that have commemorated Allen Ginsberg and Frank O'Hara, two influential poets I admire.

Rock and Roll was launched by Richard Langston (New Zealand poet and journalist) at Unity Books in Wellington, New Zealand, on 27 September 2016. This was a joint launch with MaryJane Thomson's new HeadworX book Songs of the City launched by Fiona Kidman.

At the launch I made the following comments relating to this selection:

"It was hard work putting the book together as I have around 2000 poems to select from. But I had an idea from my earlier days as a music DJ at Radio Active, to make the book like five different rock and roll concert sets, and to choose the themes that have made me more unique as a poet, poems that readers would say are distinctly Mark Pirie poems in his own voice. I chose music, film, love, sport, and Australia as my main themes, bearing in mind the Australian place of publication, too. No doubt readers will make a quite different choice of my poems if offered the chance.

I am very lucky that Bareknuckle put together an impressive cover design to complement so well the concept that I provided for them. The cover is by the artist Anthony Lister who does the artwork for their Bareknuckle Poets Pocket Series.

Finally, I would like to add that this book is in memory of the poet and editor John O’Connor who died suddenly last year, and who will be missed by the New Zealand poetry community."

Here's the link to Rock and Roll on my website:

/books/rock-and-roll-selected-poems-in-five-sets