Kerrin is our final writer-in-residence for the year. She has published five collections of poetry (all with Te Herenga Waka University Press, Wellington, NZ) with the latest Hoof, published October 2023. She has also had poems published in a wide range of journals both in NZ and overseas including Oxford Poets 13 (Carcanet Press), Blackbox Manifold, Poetry (USA), berlin lit (Germany), PN Review and Stand (UK). She has appeared in Best New Zealand Poems six times, Best of Best New Zealand Poems and The Best of Sport 2005-2019.
Kerrin says; ‘my first Michael King Residency in 2021, was very successful for me. I set out to write four interconnected poems as part of a larger sequence – I ended up writing eight, all of which were subsequently published! For example the lengthy sequence “te hau o te atua/ the breath of heaven” was published in Landfall and also subsequently in my 5th collection, Hoof (2023).
During my residency this time I want to complete a body of work that will form the core of my sixth collection which I hope to have published by Te Herenga Waka University Press. The theme of the poems I hope to write is life and relationships in harsh environmental conditions such as the Antarctic’.