Brian Turner is a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. He played hockey

Hockey

Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...

 for New Zealand in the 1960s; senior cricket in Dunedin and Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

; and was a veteran road cyclist of note. His mountaineering

Mountaineering

Mountaineering or mountain climbing is the sport, hobby or profession of hiking, skiing, and climbing mountains. While mountaineering began as attempts to reach the highest point of unclimbed mountains it has branched into specialisations that address different aspects of the mountain and consists...

 experience includes an ascent of a number of major peaks including Aoraki/Mount Cook

Aoraki/Mount Cook

Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand, reaching .It lies in the Southern Alps, the mountain range which runs the length of the South Island. A popular tourist destination, it is also a favourite challenge for mountain climbers...

.

His writing includes columns and reviews for daily and weekly newspapers, articles, given radio talks, and written scripts for TV programmes. His publications include cricket books with his brother Glenn Turner

Glenn Turner

Glenn Maitland Turner played cricket for New Zealand and was one of the country's best and most prolific batsmen. He is the current head of the New Zealand Cricket selection panel....

, the former NZ cricket captain, essays, books on fishing, the high country, and eight collections of poetry. His other brother is golfer Greg Turner

Greg Turner

Greg Turner is a New Zealand professional golfer.Turner was born in Dunedin. He attended Oklahoma University in the United States but has spent most of his career on the PGA Tour of Australasia and the European Tour. He won four tournaments on the European Tour and achieved a career best ranking...

.

Turner now (2008) lives in Oturehua, a town of 30-40 people in the Maniototo

Maniototo

The Maniototo Plain, usually simply known as The Maniototo, is an elevated inland region in Otago, New Zealand. The region roughly surrounds the upper reaches of the Taieri River and the Manuherikia River. It is bounded by the Kakanui Range to the north and the Rock and Pillar Range to the southeast...

 region of Central Otago

Central Otago

Central Otago is the inland part of the New Zealand region of Otago in the South Island. The area commonly known as Central Otago includes both the Central Otago District and the Queenstown-Lakes District to the west....

. He moved there in late 1999.

Awards and recognition

• 1979 Commonwealth Poetry Prize
• 1985 J.C. Reid Memorial Prize
• 1993 Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry
  Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry
  The Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry is one category of the New Zealand Post Book Awards, given out annually. The award carries a $5,000 prize for each winner of the category awards, including the award for poetry....
  
  
• 1997 appointed Canterbury Writer in Residence
• 2003 appointed Te Mata Estate New Zealand Poet Laureate
  Poet Laureate
  A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...
  
  
• 2009 (New Zealand) Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry
• 2010 Poetry Award at the New Zealand Post Book Awards

Selected works

• 1978 Ladders of Rain
• 1981 Ancestors
• 1983 Listening to the River
• 1985 Bones
• 1989 All That Blue Can Be
• 2001 Taking Off
• 2002 Somebodies and Nobodies
• 2005 Footfall
• 2009 Just This

External links

• Interview with Brian Turner, from New Zealand Listener of March 5-11 2005, Vol 197 no 3382