Vincent O'Sullivan (New Zealand writer)

See also: Vincent O'Sullivan

Vincent Gerard O’Sullivan (28 September 1937 Auckland, New Zealand – ) is New Zealand poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, critic and editor.

He graduated from the University of Auckland and Oxford University; he lectured at Victoria University of Wellington (1963–66) and the University of Waikato (1968–78).

He served as editor of the NZ Listener (1979–80).

Awards

• 2005 Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry
• 1999 Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry

Works

Poetry

• "Blame Vermeer", Scottish Poetry Library

• Our Burning Time (1965),
• Revenants (1969)
• Bearings (1973)
• From the Indian Funeral (1976)
• Butcher & Co. (1977)
• Brother Jonathan, Brother Kafka (1979)
• The Rose Ballroom and Other Poems (1982)
• The Butcher Papers (1982)
• The Pilate Tapes (1986)
• Selected Poems (1992)
• Seeing you asked. Victoria University Press. 1998. ISBN 9780864733528.

Short Stories

• The Boy, The Bridge, The River (1978)
• Dandy Edison for Lunch and Other Stories (1981)
• Survivals (1985)
• The Snow in Spain: Short Stories (1990)
• Palms and Minarets: Selected Stories (1992).

Novels

• Miracle (1976)
• Let the River Stand (1993)

Plays

• Shuriken, was performed at Downstage, Wellington, in July 1983.
• Billy, presented at Bats Theatre, Wellington

Anthologies

• An anthology of New Zealand poetry in English. Oxford University Press New Zealand. 1997. ISBN 9780195583380. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
• Fleur Adcock, ed. (1982). The Oxford book of contemporary New Zealand poetry. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195580921.

Editor

• The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield (1984– ). Oxford University Press. 1996. ISBN 9780198185321. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
• Mansfield’s ‘The Aloe’ with ‘Prelude’ (1982)
• Poems of Katherine Mansfield (1988)
• Selected Letters (1989)
• An Anthology of Twentieth-Century New Zealand Poetry (1970, revised 1976 and 1987)
• New Zealand Short Stories: Third Series (1975)
• New Zealand Writing Since 1945 (1983, with MacDonald P. Jackson)
• Collected Poems: Ursula Bethell (1985),
• The Oxford Book of New Zealand Short Stories (1992),

Reviews

In print and in performance, Vincent O’Sullivan as poet reminds one of nothing so much as an antipodean Marist or Jesuit; with his trenchant mix of philosophical erudition and vernacular ease, he comes across as the defrocked priest of New Zealand literature. His poems display an irreverence that shades into reverence: God is spoken of with fondness and slight regret, as if O’Sullivan is remembering a character who belongs to a previous book (which, he might say, is what God is).

This poem is in many ways typical of O'Sullivan's strengths: it has a lyric eloquence that never shies away from, often embraces, difficult sometimes philosophical subject matter and is a good introduction – as is the volume as a whole – to his work in general.

External links

• "Vincent O'Sulivan", New Zealand Literature File, University of Auckland
• "Review of Ursula Bethell, Collected Poems. Ed. Vincent O’Sullivan (Victoria UP, 1997)", New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre
• Dominic Head, ed. (2006). The Cambridge guide to literature in English. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521831796.