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Wikipedia / Elizabeth Smither

Elizabeth Edwina Smither (born 15 September 1941) is a New Zealand poet, novelist and short story writer. She is best known for her poems, having published over fifteen poetry collections, received the New Zealand Book Award for poetry on three occasions, and served as the New Zealand Poet Laureate (2001–2003).

Life and career

Smither was born in New Plymouth, and worked there part-time as a librarian.

Her first collection of poetry, Here Come the Clouds, was published in 1975, when she was in her mid-thirties. She has since published over fifteen poetry collections, as well as several short story collections and novels. Her work has won numerous notable awards, including three times the top poetry award at the New Zealand Book Awards. In 2002, she was named the New Zealand Poet Laureate.

Harry Ricketts, writing for The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, describes her strength as being "the short poem, usually but not always unrhymed, witty, stylish and intellectually curious". He also notes that her poetry tends to feature figures from literature and legends, as well as Catholicism.

In 2025, it was reported that Smither's book, Angel Train, was disqualified from the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards because its cover was created using artificial intelligence.

Awards

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections

  • You’re Very Seductive William Carlos Williams (1978)

  • The Sarah Train (1980)

  • The Legend of Marcello Mastroianni's wife (1981)

  • Casanova's Ankle (1981)

  • Shakespeare Virgins (1983)

  • Professor Musgrove's Canary (1986)

  • Gorilla/ Guerilla (1986)

  • Animaux (1988)

  • A Pattern of Marching (1989)

  • A Cortège of Daughters (1993)

  • The Tudor Style: Poems New and Selected (1993)

  • Horse Playing the Accordion (Ahadada Books, Tokyo & Toronto, 2009)

  • The Love of One Orange

Anthologies

List of poems

Novels

  • First Blood (1983)

  • Brother-love Sister-love (1986)

  • The Sea Between Us (2003) 2004 Finalist for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards

Short stories

  • Nights at the Embassy (1990)

  • Mr Fish (1994)

References