Bill Manhire

Early life

Manhire was born in Invercargill. His mother was from Scotland with a degree in science, and his father was a publican; they had met and married during World War II, and his mother sailed to New Zealand on a ship of war brides on Valentine's Day in 1946. In his memoir Under the Influence (2003), he described growing up in different small town South Island pubs. He attended Otago Boys' High School, and later the University of Otago in Dunedin where he received his B.A. in 1967, his M.A. (with honours) in 1968, and his M.Litt. in 1970. He went on to study Norse sagas at University College London (1970–73, M.Phil.).

As a young writer, Manhire sent some poetry to Charles Brasch; of this work, Manhire later said, "I can't remember the exact contents, but I think they had lines like 'I stalk the streets of the midnight city' and were full of soiled sheets and neon and terrible things like that". He said he was "enormously encouraged" by Brasch's response, which encouraged him to keep trying and to take himself seriously as a writer. Other writers Manhire met in Dunedin included Iain Lonie, Trevor Reeves and James K. Baxter.

Career

In the 1960s, while still an undergraduate at the University of Otago, Manhire had his first poems published in New Zealand journals, including notably the journal Landfall, then edited by Robin Dudding. While studying in London in the early 1970s he had poems published in British magazines. His first book was a poem, Malady, published in 1970. It consisted of just four words ("malady", "melody" and "my lady") arranged in patterns on the page, accompanied by drawings by artist Ralph Hotere, who had met Manhire in Dunedin while he was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow. Manhire's second book, The Elaboration (1972), was also a collaboration with Hotere, and was published by Charles Brasch and Janet Paul. Around this time, and while living in London, Manhire and fellow poet Kevin Cunningham set up the Amphedesma Press to publish their own and their friends' work, including poetry books by Ian Wedde and Bob Orr.

In 1973, after returning to New Zealand, Manhire began lecturing in the English department of Victoria University of Wellington, where he founded New Zealand's first creative writing course in 1975. His creative writing course, which he taught for more than 25 years, had a major influence on New Zealand literature, with many well-known New Zealand writers having graduated, including Elizabeth Knox, Barbara Anderson and Jenny Bornholdt. Mutes & Earthquakes (1997) was an anthology of works by his former students; the introduction by Manhire begins with two pieces of advice: "1. Write what you know, and / 2. Write what you don't know". From 2001 to 2013 he was the inaugural and founding director of the International Institute of Modern Letters, which offers an MA and Ph.D. in creative writing, as well as a range of specialised undergraduate workshops. Students of the Institute have included Eleanor Catton, Catherine Chidgey and Hinemoana Baker. In 2016 the institute's building was named the Bill Manhire House in recognition of his contribution to the university and to New Zealand literature. His successor Damien Wilkins said on the occasion that Manhire's name "is synonymous with creative writing at Victoria".

Manhire has published a number of poetry collections, including notably his Collected Poems (2001). His poetry is known for word-play, experimentation and his ironic and whimsical sense of humour. Critic Iain Sharp writes that Manhire's reputation "rests on a solid, seriously intentioned body of work, notable for its oblique lyricism and sense of wonder at the strangeness of both life and language". After his fifth book of poetry, Good Looks (1982), Manhire for a time switched to writing prose, publishing The Brain of Katherine Mansfield (1988), a book in the style of the Choose Your Own Adventure series with illustrations by Gregory O'Brien, and The New Land (1990), a collection of satirical short stories. In 1986 he wrote a critical study of fellow New Zealand writer Maurice Gee.

Awards and honours

Manhire has received a number of New Zealand's most prestigious literary awards and fellowships, including the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship in 2004, an Arts Foundation Laureate Award in 2004 and the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in 2007. He received the Lilian Ida Smith Award in 1987 for fiction and in 1989 for poetry. He was appointed the first New Zealand Poet Laureate in 1996, and from January to May 1999 was the Fulbright visiting professor in New Zealand studies at Georgetown University.

In the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature, and that same year received an honorary doctorate of literature from the University of Otago. In 2010 he was appointed a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi. In 2015 he was the UNESCO visiting professor of creative writing at the University of East Anglia. In 2018, the Arts Foundation of New Zealand bestowed on him the Icon Award, an award recognising New Zealand's greatest artists, which is limited to 20 living recipients. In 2021 he received an honorary doctorate of literature from University College London.

His work has won the Poetry Prize at the New Zealand Book Awards six times:

1978: How to Take Your Clothes Off at the Picnic

1985: Zoetropes

1992: Milky Way Bar

1994: 100 New Zealand Poems (as editor)

1996: My Sunshine

2006: Lifted

Notable students

Lynn Jenner – New Zealand poet and essayist

Laurence Fearnley – New Zealand writer (born 1963)

Personal life

He is married to journalist Marion McLeod, and has two children, Vanessa and Toby, who are both journalists and writers.

Selected works