Murray takes up our 17th residency to work on an essay that takes a small section of Auckland and reads its monuments for their historical, cultural, social and psychological significance and subtext. He has worked as a writer, actor and director with The Living Theatre Troupe, Half Moon Theatre (London), Theatre Action, Town and Country Players, and Mercury Theatre, Auckland.
As Associate Professor of Drama at the University of Auckland, 1985-2014, he taught literature and drama.
He is the author of 13 poetry books and the editor of three anthologies including; Big Smoke: New Zealand Poems 1960-1975 (Auckland University Press, 2000) and Noh Business, a study of the influence of Noh drama on the Western avant-garde, published by Atelos, Berkeley, USA, 2005.
Recent publications include; Then It Was Now Again: Selected Critical Writing (Atuanui Press, 2014); Shaggy Magpie Songs, poems (Auckland University Press, 2015); Strait Men and Other Tales, fiction (Steele Roberts, 2015).
Murray is editor of critical journal Ka Mate Ka Ora: A New Zealand Journal of Poetry and Poetics http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/kmko/ and is dramaturge for Indian Ink Theatre Company, http://www.indianink.co.nz
He lives in Auckland.