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Harlow, Michael
Writer's File

Michael Harlow

Otago - Ōtākou
Harlow, Michael
In brief
Michael Harlow (1937–) is a poet, publisher and librettist. Born in the USA with Greek and Ukrainian heritage, he settled in New Zealand in 1968. He has published twelve books of poetry, including Giotto's Elephant (a poetry finalist in the 1991 New Zealand Book Awards), Cassandra's Daughter (Auckland University Press, 2005), The Tram Conductor's Blue Cap (Auckland University Press), which was a poetry finalist the 2010 New Zealand Book Awards, Selected Poems, Sweeping the Courtyard (Cold Hub Press 2014) and a book of love poems, Heart Absolutely I Can (Makaro Press, 2014).

Michael’s books (5)

Cassandra's Daughter
Cassandra's Daughter
Heart Absolutely I Can
Heart Absolutely I Can
Sweeping the Courtyard
Sweeping the Courtyard
Nothing For It But To Sing
Nothing For It But To Sing
The Tram Conductor's Blue Cap
The Tram Conductor's Blue Cap
Bio

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Harlow (1937–) is a poet, publisher and librettist. Born in the USA with Greek and Ukrainian heritage, he settled in New Zealand in 1968.

Harlow has published twelve books of poetry including Giotto's Elephant (a poetry finalist in the 1991 New Zealand Book Awards), Cassandra's Daughter (Auckland University Press, 2005), The Tram Conductor's Blue Cap (Auckland University Press), a poetry finalist the 2010 New Zealand Book Awards, Selected Poems, Sweeping the Courtyard (Cold Hub Press 2014) and a book of love poems, Heart Absolutely I Can (Mākaro Press, 2014).

Harlow has appeared at literary festivals in Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Mexico, Romania, and Italy, and his work has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, and Romanian.

Take a Risk, Trust Your Language, Make a Poem was awarded the PEN/NZ Best First Book of Prose award in 1986.

Nothing For It But To Sing, the 2015 Kathleen Grattan Poetry Prize winner, was published by Otago University Press in 2016.

Harlow's awards include the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellow/NZ Cultural Ambassador, 1986-1987; New Zealand-Australian Exchange Fellow, 1991; Writing Bursaries, 1977, 1990; NZPS International Poetry Competition, 3rd Prize, 2005; tākahē Poetry Prize, 2006; Randell Cottage Writer in Residence, 2004; Burns Fellow, University of Otago, 2009; Inaugural Caselberg Artist in Residence, 2009; the Wallace Artist/Writer in Residence, 2011-2012; The Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for Distinguished Contributions to Poetry, 2014.

Harlow was awarded the NZSA Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship for 2016 and was the recipient of the Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award in 2015 for his book of poems Nothing For It But To Sing, published by Otago University Press in 2016.

Harlow worked as the associate and poetry editor at Landfall for some ten years. As editor of the Caxton Press Poetryseries, he was involved inpublishing the early work of some of New Zealand’s leading poets including Michele Leggott, Gregory O’Brien, Murray Edmond and Bernadette Hall.

He has served as a judge for a number of national and international poetry competitions and selection panels, including the 1986 and 2001 New Zealand Book Awards, the Mid-Career Writers Award, and representing NZSA on the Burns Fellowship selection committee.

Other contributions to the literary community include co-founding and editing Frontiers/a Magazine of the Arts and serving as president and chair of the Christchurch PEN branch.

Harlow has been a New Zealand/Oceania representative at international festivals in Medellin, Colombia, Monterey Mexico, Caracas, Venezuela, Granada, and Nicaragua (2007 and 2014), and at the European Association for Commonwealth Literature in Laufen, Germany, and Istanbul, Turkey as a poet, translator, and speaker.

As a librettist, Harlow has collaborated with New Zealand composer in Switzerland Kit Powell in creating and presenting 13 performance works in New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Russia, including 'Les Episodes, Conversation with Questions,' a commission by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for their 40th anniversary, and most recently 'Microzoic Piano Suite' (2013), commissioned by the Ensemble Neue Musik Zürich and presented at the City Gallery, Kunsthaus, Zürich.

Harlow's latest collection of prose poems Renoir’s Bicycle (Cold Hub Press, 2022) combines his profession as a Jungian therapist, his sideline as a librettist and musician and his Greek background.

Michael Harlow lives and works as a writer, editor, and Jungian therapist in Central Otago.

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