Poet Laureate Comes to Wairarapa
“The beloved pop idol of Aotearoa poetry” Chris Tse, New Zealand’s 13th Poet Laureate comes to the Wairarapa on Saturday February 18th.
Everyone is invited to the free afternoon performance at Carterton Events Centre at 2pm. Free entry, free seating, koha is welcome.
Tse will also lead a writing workshop, but this filled up in a few days.
“Everybody wants and loves Chris Tse because he makes poetry emotionally potent, incredibly chic and also sexy,” reports Claire Mabey in The Spinoff. “He’s an entire literary eco-system: the poet’s poet; the reluctant-about-poetry-reader’s poet; the fashion-lover’s poet; the pop idol of poets; the Prince-Madonna of Aotearoa letters.”
At age 39, Tse is the also youngest writer ever to hold the position.
Chris Tse is the author of Super Model Minority, How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, He’s so MASC and co-editor of Out Here – An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTIA+ writers from Aotearoa. His poetry, short fiction, and non-fiction has been recorded for radio and widely published.
"Since becoming Poet Laureate I've had many conversations with people about the exciting developments in contemporary poetry,” Tse told Wairarapa Word. “I'm looking forward to furthering this exploration of why poetry continues to resonate with people at my Wairarapa Word events. Both the workshop and the reading will focus on the small joys of poetry to help people make it a part of their daily lives."
The Poet Laureate’s events in Wairarapa are presented by Wairarapa Word and Wairarapa Library Service, with support from Almo’s Books, Carterton Creative Communities, NZ China Friendship Society, and Carterton Events Centre. Almo’s Books is joining the fun and offering a special 18% off all of its poetry titles on the day, February 18th.
For more information, contact: events.waiword@gmail.com.