Brian Turner

Brian Lindsay Turner (born 4 March 1944 in Dunedin) is a New Zealand poet and author. He played hockey for New Zealand in the 1960s; senior cricket in Dunedin and Wellington; and was a veteran road cyclist of note. His mountaineering experience includes an ascent of a number of major peaks including Aoraki / Mount Cook.

His writing includes columns and reviews for daily and weekly newspapers, articles, given radio talks, and written scripts for TV programme. His publications include cricket books with his brother Glenn Turner, the former NZ cricket captain, essays, books on fishing, the high country, and eight collections of poetry. His other brother is golfer Greg Turner.

As of 2008 Turner lives in Oturehua, a town of 30-40 people in the Maniototo region of Central Otago. He moved there in late 1999.

Awards and recognition

Source:

• 1979 Commonwealth Poetry Prize
• 1985 J.C. Reid Memorial Prize
• 1993 Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry
• 1997 appointed Canterbury Writer in Residence
• 2003 appointed Te Mata Estate New Zealand Poet Laureate
• 2009 Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry
• 2010 Poetry Award for Just This at the New Zealand Post Book Awards

Selected works[5]

Poetry

• Ladders of Rain (John McIndoe, 1978)
• Ancestors (John McIndoe, 1981)
• Listening to the River (John McIndoe, 1983)
• Bones (John McIndoe, 1985)
• All That Blue Can Be (John McIndoe, 1989)
• Beyond (John McIndoe, 1992)
• Taking Off (Victoria University Press, 2001)
• Footfall (Random House, 2005)
• Just This (Victoria University Press, 2009)
• Inside Outside (Victoria University Press, 2011)
• Elemental: Central Otago Poems(Godwit/Random House, 2012)
• Night Fishing (Victoria University Press, 2016)

Memoir

• Somebodies and Nobodies (Random House, 2002)