Big Weather Poems Of Wellington

Local Description

Name on half title

Description

Every Wellingtonian - dammit, every New Zealander - should be severely tempted to buy Big Weather for the home bookshelf. It's a lovely book to handle, with a cool cover and excellent layout. If you think these are trivial aspects in a poetry book, think again. Design messages hit most readers subliminally. When poems are presented crowded or cramped or sloppy on the page, we tend to assume the poems themselves are too hard or too many or too bad to bother with. The designer, Margaret Cochran, is largely responsible for the fact that you'll actually enjoy these poems. And you will. The O'Brien/White selection is worthy of the design. The editors had a tough call, finding a range of poems about Wellington that didn't focus on bad weather. And that's odd, because as you know, Wellington's weather is generally gorgeous, with just a few agitated days each year to liven us up. At the book launch someone explained that when the weather is good, Wellington poets are out roller blading or swimming or walking on Tinakori Hill or lapping up lattes. We only sit around writing gloomy poems on the very few days when the wind is blowing too hard to go windsurfing. Even so, I think you will recognise our city from this broad, keen, cunning, user-friendly anthology. It's a dear little book with a very strong flavour.

Awards

Shortlisted for Book Data New Zealand Booksellers' Choice Award 2001.