Helen Heath

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Helen Heath
Helen Heath.jpg
Born1970 (age 5354)
LanguageEnglish
Alma mater Victoria University of Wellington
GenrePoetry
Notable worksGraft
Notable awardsNZSA Jessie McKay Best First Book Award for Poetry
Website
Official website

Helen Heath (born 1970) is a poet from New Zealand.

Contents

Background

Heath is based in Wellington, New Zealand. [1] She received her MA and PhD in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters, at the Victoria University of Wellington. [2] In 2017 she was publishing programme leader at Whitireia Publishing (part of Whitireia Community Polytechnic). [3]

Works

Heath's poetry explores ideas of science, motherhood and grief, and she draws inspiration from scientists such as Isaac Newton. [2]

Heath's first published work was the chapbook, Watching the Smoke. In 2012 she published her first poetry collection, Graft. [1] Her collection Are Friends Electric? was published in 2018 by Victoria University Press. [4]

Heath has also been published in the Best New Zealand Poems series (2012) [5] and literary journals, including Turbine, [6] Swamp, [7] 4th Floor, [8] and Snorkel. [9]

Awards

Graft won the 2013 NZSA Jessie McKay Best First Book Award for Poetry at the New Zealand Post Book Awards. [10]

The scientific perspective of the poetry in Graft led her poem ‘Making Tea in the Universe’ to win the 2011 inaugural Science Teller Poetry Award. In 2013, the collection became the first book of poetry or fiction work to be shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize. [1] The book was also listed in the New Zealand Listener's Top 100 Books of 2012. [11]

In 2019 Are Friends Electric? won the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. [12]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Helen Heath". New Zealand Book Council. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 Somerset, Guy (18 July 2013). "Guy Somerset interviews poet Helen Heath - The Listener". Noted. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  3. "Helen Heath". International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  4. Heath, Helen (2018). Are friends electric?. Wellington [New Zealand]: Victoria University Press. ISBN   9781776561902. OCLC   1032024266.
  5. "Best New Zealand Poems 2012". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  6. "Turbine | Kapohau 2016". Turbine | Kapohau. 2016. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  7. Heath, Helen. "Plum". Swamp. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  8. "About Us". 4th Floor Literary Journal. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  9. "Snorkel #17: Contents". Snorkel. April 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  10. "Past Winners by Author". New Zealand Book Awards Trust. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  11. "The 100 best books of 2012". The Listener. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  12. "Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2019 Winners Announcement". Creative New Zealand. 14 May 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.

Official website