Cilla McQueen

Poet, teacher and artist Cilla McQueen has published 15 collections, three of which have won the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry. Her most recent work is a poetic memoir, In a Slant Light (Otago University Press, 2016). Other titles from OUP are Markings, Axis, Soundings, Fire-penny, A Wind Harp, The Radio Room and Edwin's Egg. In 2008 she received an Hon.Litt.D. from the University of Otago, and was the New Zealand National Library Poet Laureate 2009–2011. In 2010 she received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry. Cilla's first book, Homing In (1982) won both the Jessie Mackay Award and the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry. She was the Robert Burns Fellow at Otago in 1985 and 1986. Cilla lives and works in the southern port of Motupohue, Bluff.


Cilla McQueen at DWRF 2017
A Circle of Laureates

Image: Libby Furr