Gregory Kan
Kan, Greg (1987 - ) is a poet, born in Singapore and living in Wellington. He began studying at the University of Auckland starting in 2008 and completed his Bachelor of Arts in 2011. He then completed his Masters of Arts at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University Wellington. Gregory won numerous awards during his study, including the Senior Prize in Philosophy in 2009 and the Senior Prizes in English and Philosophy in 2010 (University of Auckland), plus the Dominion Post Masters Thesis Scholarship and the IIML Jean Squire Project Scholarship in 2012 (Victoria University of Wellington).
Gregory’s first published poetry collection, This Paper Boat (2016), traces his own history, life and family, intertwined with the history of 20th century New Zealand Poet Robin Hyde. It is an experience that flows easily from page to page, laced with beautiful imagery and the ghosts of the author’s past. This Paper Boat was a finalist for the Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award in 2013. Gregory’s second collection, Under Glass (2019), is a more abstract experience, an intertwining of prose and verse that take the reader through mysterious landscapes. The prose deals with a threatening and mystifying external landscape, and the verse focuses on traversing an internal landscape, driven by the speaker’s desire for understanding. NZ Booklovers described Under Glass as “An extraordinary book of poetry that takes you on a world of different journeys.”
Gregory was a finalist for best poetry in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, (Ockham, 2017) and was chosen for the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship 2017 (Frank Sargeson Trust, 2017), where he worked on Under Glass. Outside of poetry, Gregory also works as a programmer. He wrote glass.leaves, a text manipulator, which has become increasingly popular with writers in New Zealand and overseas.
Links
Cordite Poetry Review Interview
BooksellersNZ Review of Under Glass
NZBooklovers Review of Under Glass
Gregory's Twitter
Gregory's Instagram
