Glenn Colquhoun

Profile
Glenn Colquhoun is a people’s poet. He writes accessible verse on high-interest topics such as cultural difference, love, and the life questions raised in medical practice - all laced with humour and poignancy. He is in demand as a reader at schools, universities, writing festivals, medical audiences and the general public.

Selected published works
The Art of Walking Upright, 1999, Best First Book of Poetry, Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2000; An Explanation of Poetry to my Father, 2000; Playing God, 2002, Montana New Zealand Award for Poetry 2003, Montana New Zealand Book Awards Readers’ Choice Award, 2003; Jumping Ship, 2004; How We Fell, 2006.

Publishers
Steele Roberts Ltd www.steeleroberts.co.nz

Biography
Glenn Colquhoun was born in 1964 and grew up in the “cultural melting pot” of South Auckland. At age 26, after gaining an English degree and working in a number of jobs – including carpentry – he decided to study medicine. During a break in his medical training, he went to live in the tiny Māori settlement at Te Tii, in the Bay of Islands, where he learned the language and became closely involved with the local community. This experience led to his first volume of poetry, The Art of Walking Upright (1999), which won the Jessie McKay Best First Book Award for Poetry at the 2000 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

After finishing his medical degree, Colquhoun worked in Whangarei and Waikato Hospitals. He currently works as a GP with an Iwi Health Provider on the Kapiti Coast. In 2002, he published his third poetry book, Playing God, grounded in the daily realities of being a doctor, which won both the 2003 Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry and the Readers’ Choice award.

Colquhoun’s poetry is assured, forthright, stylish – and moving. Above all, it has that rare combination of accessibility and excellence that has brought him such widespread acclaim.

In 2001 and 2003, Colquhoun was a judge of the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards. In 2002, he toured the north of New Zealand with senior New Zealand poet Hone Tuwhare. Colquhoun was a featured artist at the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, speaking at a seminar – named after his book An Explanation of Poetry to my Father – on a panel with American Poet Laureate Billy Collins. In 2003, he was a member of the New Zealand Book Council’s Words on Wheels tour, and in March 2004, he won the prestigious $60,000 Prize in Modern Letters through Victoria University of Wellington.

He has also published three children’s books, Uncle Glenn & Me (Reed, 1999), Uncle Glenn & Me Too (Reed, 2004) and Mr Short, Mr Thin, Mr Bald and Mr Dog (Steele Roberts, 2005). In 2004, he published an essay about his time in Te Tii, entitled Jumping Ship (Four Winds Press).