Louise Wallace
Louise Wallace is the author of two collections of poetry. Since June, was published in 2009 by Victoria University Press, and her second collection, Enough, in 2013. Her poems have appeared in a number of journals including Akzente (Germany), Landfall, Meanjin (Australia) and Sport, and have been anthologized in The Best of Best New Zealand Poems (VUP: 2011) and Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page (Random House: 2014). She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Victoria University of Wellington, and is the Robert Burns Fellow for 2015 at the University of Otago, Dunedin. Wallace is available to visit schools as part of our Writers in Schools programme, as well as lead Professional Development sessions for teachers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wallace, Louise (-) is a poet. She grew up in Gisborne, and has since spent a significant amount of time living in Wellington, as well as shorter periods in Japan, Nelson and Dunedin.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from Victoria University in 2004. In 2008 she completed an MA in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters (Victoria University of Wellington), and won the Biggs Prize for Poetry for her manuscript. Over the past 10 years, her poems have appeared in numerous journals including Akzente (Germany), Landfall, Meanjin (Australia), Snorkel, Sport, and Turbine, and have twice appeared in the Best New Zealand Poems series (2009 and 2011).
Louise Wallace’s first collection of poetry, Since June, was published by Victoria University Press in 2009. The collection touches on family stories, popular music, travel, and relationships. Peter Dornauf wrote in a review for the Waikato Times of Since June, ‘these poems show an assured hand, a restraint that holds the underlying tension in a firm grasp. They also possess a wonderful surreal edge. Wallace has an unnerving ability to collage disparate images into a whole where each part of the work sparks off the other…The poems also seem effortless, and Wallace is the master of understatement which packs a wallop, often coming at things from an oblique angle…These are clever, astute works, perfectly pitched, wry and simply beautiful.’
Enough, her second collection of poetry was published by Victoria University Press in 2013. Paula Green said in her review on Poetry Shelf: 'The structure of Louise’s collection works beautifully, with its movement from prose poem to poem to little poem to bite-size poem and hither and thither. Wherever you look there is energy — whether in the plainness, the heart, the anecdotal swivels, the hesitations, the repetitions or the idiosyncratic detail. This is a poetry collection to savour.'
Louise Wallace was awarded the Robert Burns Fellowship in 2015, one of six University of Otago Arts Fellowships presented annually.
MEDIA LINKS AND CLIPS
- Louise Wallace’s Victoria University Press Author’s Page
- Louise Wallace’s Robert Burns Fellowship Profile
- Louise Wallace’s poetry in Best New Zealand Poems 2009 and Best New Zealand Poems 2011
- Louise Wallace’s poetry in Snorkel 9
- Review of Enough on the NZ Poetry Shelf
- Interview with Louise Wallace re. Enough on Radio NZ
- Interview with Louise Wallace re Since June on Radio NZ
