Cilla McQueen

Cilla McQueen MNZM
McQueen in 2020
Born	Priscilla Muriel McQueen (1949-01-22)22 January 1949 Birmingham,England
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	New Zealand
Notable awards	New Zealand Book Award for Poetry(1983, 1989, 1991) New Zealand Poet Laureate(2009)
Spouse	Ralph Hotere ​ (m.1974⁠–⁠1986)​

Priscilla Muriel McQueenMNZM(born 22 January 1949) is a New Zealand poet and three-time winner of theNew Zealand Book Award for Poetry.

Early years and education

McQueen was born on 22 January 1949 inBirmingham,England.Her family moved toNew Zealandwhen she was four. She was educated atColumba CollegeinDunedinandUniversity of Otago(Master'swith first-class Honours in 1971).She was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Literature by University of Otago in 2008.

Career

A poet and artist, she has published many collections, including two sound recordings and two selected works, of herpoetry.In 2009she was namedNew Zealand Poet Laureate.She also received thePrime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement(Poetry) in 2010.Other awards include: NZ Book Award for Poetry 1983, 1989 and 1991;Robert Burns Fellowshipat Otago University 1985 & 1986; Fulbright Visiting Writer's Fellowship 1985; Inaugural Australia-New Zealand Writer's Exchange Fellowship 1987; Goethe Institute Scholarship to Berlin 1988; NZ Queen Elizabeth Arts Council Scholarship in Letters 1992. Her most recent works areIn a Slant Light,a poet's memoir (2016, Otago University Press),Poeta: Selected and New Poems(2018, Otago University Press), and a chapbookQualiathat is bundled with five other chapbooks by New Zealand poets inBundle 1(Maungatua Press 2020).

In 1999 McQueen was awarded theSouthland Art Foundation Artist in Residenceaward, which allowed her to develop both poetry and painting simultaneously. Recent exhibitions of her art work include "Picture Poem", works by Cilla McQueen andJoanna Paul,at the Hocken Library, Dunedin, 2015 and an exhibition of intuitive musical scores, "What Happens", at the Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin, 2015.

Cilla McQueen's poems include themes of homeland and loss, indigeneity, colonisation and displacement. She writes as a descendant of the people of the remote (and now abandoned) archipelago of St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides. Her writing also reflects her engagement with the history and present reality of the Maori people of Murihiku.

In the2020 Queen's Birthday Honours,McQueen was appointed aMember of the New Zealand Order of Merit,for services as a poet.

Personal life

McQueen was married to New Zealand artistRalph Hoterefrom 1973 until the 1990s, and together they set up a studio and living space atCareys Bay,nearPort Chalmers.She currently lives inBluff,at the southern tip of New Zealand's South Island.

Works

McQueen's work includes a variety of poetry books and poems over the past twenty-five years, including these volumes:

Plaque dedicated to Cilla McQueen in Dunedin, on the Writers' Walk on the Octagon

• 1982:Homing In,John McIndoe
• 1984:Anti Gravity,McIndoe
• 1985:Buick Electra
• 1986:Wild Sweets,McIndoe
• 1988:Benzina,John McIndoe
• 1989:Otherwise,recording on cassette, featuring music by Alistair MacDougall
• 1990:Berlin Diary,John McIndoe
• 1993:Crik'ey: New and Selected Poems, 1978-1994,McIndoe Publishers
• 2000:Markings: Poems and Drawings,Otago University Press
• 2001:Axis: Poems and Drawings,Otago University Press
• 2002:Soundings: Poems and Drawings,Otago University Press
• 2005:Fire-penny,Otago University Press
• 2006:A Wind Harp(compact disc)
• 2010:The Radio Room,Otago University Press
• 2014:Edwin's Egg and Other Poetic Novellas,Otago University Press
• 2014:An Island,letterpress edition, Mirrorcity Press
• 2016:In a Slant Light: A Poet's Memoir,Otago University Press
• 2018:Poeta: Selected and New Poems,Otago University Press
• 2020:Qualia,one of six chapbooks inBundle 1,Maungatua Press

External links

• Interview with Cilla McQueen
• McQueen on video reading poems