Stephen Oliver (poet)

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Stephen Oliver
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Oliver in 2023
Born(1950-12-05)5 December 1950
Wellington, New Zealand
EducationSt Patrick's College, Wellington
OccupationWriter, poet, broadcaster

Stephen Oliver is an Australasian or transtasman poet and broadcaster, currently living in New Zealand but with close links to Australia where he lived for twenty years. He has published sixteen poetry collections, seven chapbooks, and a memoir, Unposted, Autumn Leaves/A Memoir In Essays.

Biography

The Australasian poet Stephen Oliver was born in 1950.[1] His father was an atheist of Presbyterian temperament, a leading chemist and at one time the Principal of the Pharmacy College, Cambridge Terrace, Wellington, before dying at the age of 53.[2] His mother came from a strong Irish Catholic background in Dunedin where her parents ran the City Hotel, which received many distinguished international guests, and famous for its celebrated oval bar.[3] The disparity between his respective parents’ upbringings and backgrounds contributed to the cultural and emotional divide between his parents.[4]

As a child, he lived in Karepa St, Brooklyn-west, Wellington, a place captured in some detail in his book length poem, Intercolonial.[5] He was first educated at the Catholic Convent School (St. Bernard’s) Taft Street, off Ohiro Road, Wellington, and the Marist Brothers Primary School in Newtown before progressing to St Patrick's College (town).[6] Many of his teachers were untrained,[7] and he was educated with the usual mixture of incompetence, brutality and occasional inspiration. He recalls the influence of two teachers in particular, the lay teacher, Richard Stodart and Fr. Kevin O'Donoghue his English teacher; both strongly encouraged his burgeoning interest in poetry.[8] Upon leaving St. Pat’s, Oliver did a one year Magazine Journalism course at Wellington Polytechnic.[9]

He worked briefly as a copywriter at an advertising agency, and subsequently was fired for writing poems during his work hours.[10] He then worked part-time on Wellington's Evening Post,[11] Oliver belonged to the bohemian element during his early days post-secondary school in Wellington, haunting the city's artistic demimonde, centred on the Duke Hotel (since demolished).[12] He lived in Sawyers Bay, Dunedin, in the early 1970s, drawn by the inexpensive living and by strong ancestral connections covered in Unposted, Autumn Leaves / A Memoir In Essays.[13] In Dunedin he worked as a journalist, newsreader and production voice on Radio 4XO.[14] He was married, but briefly.[15]

In 1975, back in Wellington, Oliver worked as morning news reader on Radio Windy, and crossed paths with the comedian John Clarke and broadcaster Brian Edwards.[16] From the mid 70s, he moved to Whangarei employed as a morning announcer by Radio NZ, then moved to Auckland where he worked as copywriter/production voice for Radio Hauraki, and then a free-lance voice over artist.[17] He lived mainly in Sydney, through spent three years in Melbourne, before shifting back to Sydney.[18] He returned to New Zealand in 2006, having spent twenty years in Australia (1986-2006), settling first in Te Kuiti (where he wrote a weekly column for the Waikato Times) and a few years later moving to Hamilton, both in the North Island.[19]

Critical reception

Oliver has been described as 'one of our neglected poets',[20] despite receiving many highly positive reviews. Michael Morrisey suggested that Oliver was omitted from the 2014 collection, Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page because he was one of four 'difficult, confrontational poets'.[21] Max Nemtsov (Moscow based Russian translator and editor) noted Oliver's resistance to what Oliver called 'the Generation of '68', and the fashion in poetry created by O'Hara and Ashbery, followed by Olson, Creeley and Duncan.[22]

Oliver has received many very positive reviews over the years. Mark Pirie, New Zealand editor and publisher of HeadworX, dedicated an issue of Broadsheet: New Zealand Poetry to Oliver's work, saying: 'Gifted with an oratorical voice and equally gifted with the qualities of true and genuine poetry, Oliver is a poet I’ve admired for two decades.'[23] Oliver has also been the 'featured writer' in Poetry NZ, Volume 26.[24] The Canberra critic, Nicholas Reid called Harmonic a 'tour de force' and doubted that Australasian letters would see a more important volume in the decade.[25] Various other writers & reviewers who have supported Oliver’s poetics over the decades are: Kerry Leves, Patricia Prime, Peter Goldsworthy, Robbie Coburn, and Warren Dibble, to name a few.

A number of critics have commented on Oliver's technical range and abilities, with Nicole Sprague noting his 'playful stylistic diversity'[26] and Jennifer Strauss observing that Oliver is 'a poet confident that his craft will sustain whatever he demands of it'.[27] Geoff Page called him 'one of the most accomplished satirists writing in Australia and New Zealand.’[28]

In terms of theme, the Australian critic Nicholas Reid has noted Oliver's deep-rooted modernism in several places, describing Harmonic as 'a volume that takes on ... the modernist inheritance and the difficult question of Nature'.[29] A number of critics have noted an existential anxiety in Oliver's work, what Chris Danta pointed to as a 'cosmic claustrophobia' in Deadly Pollen.[30] And others have pointed to the central role of myth in Oliver's thinking, with Judith Rodriguez commenting that 'his dreamscape comprises the coming of the gods, the Romans, the Vikings, the Maori'.[31]

Oliver's poems also have a social and political dimension. As Jefferson Gaskin said, 'the poems often manage to be deeply ruminative, covering such diverse and serious topics as political, social and economic reform; nuclear testing; child abuse, and even Tourette syndrome, but whatever the subject, they never lose their sense of play'. He observes that the poems 'possess a subtle power to disturb and provoke'.[32]

Poetry volumes by Stephen Oliver

  • Henwise, Hawk Press, Christchurch (1975) & interviews, Horizontal Press, Auckland (1978)
  • Autumn Songs, (chapbook), Horizontal Press, Auckland (1978)
  • Letter To James K. Baxter, (chapbook), Horizonal Press, Auckland (1980)
  • Earthbound Mirrors, Horizontal Press, Auckland (1984)
  • Guardians, Not Angels, Hazard Press, Christchurch (1993)
  • Islands of Wilderness—A Romance, a four-in-one publication, The Wild Side, Penguin Books, Australia, ed., Judith Rodriguez (1996)
  • Unmanned, HeadworX Publications, Wellington (1999)
  • Election Year Blues, (chapbook), Pork Barrel Press, Sydney (1999)
  • Night of Warehouses: Poems 1978-2000, HeadworX Publications, Wellington (2001)
  • Deadly Pollen, (chapbook), Word Riot Press, Middletown/NJ, USA (2003)
  • Ballads, Satire & Salt—A Book of Diversions, illus. by Matt Ottley, Greywacke Press, Sydney (2003)
  • Either Side The Horizon, Titus Books, Auckland (2005)
  • Parable Of The Sea Sponge, (chapbook), Kilmog Press, Dunedin (2007)
  • Harmonic, Interactive Press, Brisbane, Australia (2008)
  • Apocrypha, (chapbook), Cold Hub Press, Lyttleton, Christchurch (2010)
  • Intercolonial, Puriri Press, Auckland (2013)
  • Gone: Satirical Poems: New & Selected, Greywacke Press, Canberra, Australia(2016)
  • Luxembourg, Greywacke Press, Canberra, Australia (2018)
  • Heroides / 15 Sonnets, (chapbook), Puriri Press Auckland (2020)
  • The Song Of Globule/80 Sonnets, Greywacke Press, Canberra, Australia (2020)
  • Cranial Bunker, Greywacke Press, Canberra, Australia (2023)

Recordings

  • 'From Earthbound Mirrors', recorded and read by the author. Mandrill Studios, Parnell, Auckland. Released on cassette through ODE Record, Auckland, (SODET-196), 1984.
  • ‘Election Year Blues’, recorded and read by author. The Globe Tapes: 42 New Zealand Poets Read Their Work, ed., Rosemary Menzies, Mike Johnson, Michael Morrissey; engineer, Bill Rogers (released on twin cassette with accompanying book of poems), Auckland, NZ, 1985.
  • 35 mm film short, Something In The Air, recorded and read by the author, with an original music score by Bob Jackson, jazz musician. Directed by Allan MacGillivray. Screened, Auckland International Film Festival, 1986. Screened, Roma Theatre, Sydney; dist. CEL, 1987.
  • Poems in the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive, CD27 1. The Woolshed, 2. Flagon Days, 3. from The Still Watchers, 4. Legerdemain, 5. Mururoa Truffles, 6. Ballade of a Glossy, 7. Heaven, 8. Stalin's Cotton Socks, 9. Letter to an Astronomer, 10. Taffy the Turtle Contemporary New Zealand Poets, ed. Jack Ross / Jan Kemp, Auckland University, New Zealand, 2004.

SoundCloud and YouTube recordings

Recordings of Oliver's work can be found at:

Other video poems written & performed by Oliver can be found on YouTube:

  • 'The Streets of Kiev', published on YouTube as a video poem, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ew-kAk9d0A produced by the author and read in Russian by the Moscow based translator, Max Nemtsov, published June 23 (2015).
  • 'Jacob’s Ladder', published on the ESA (European Space Agency) sponsored platform Rosetta Art Tribute along with a recording of the prose poem by the author, published May (2016).

Broadcasts and performances by Stephen Oliver

  • Anzac Day Radio Special, presenting a selection of World War I poets, including Wilfred Owen's ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth.’ 4XO, Dunedin, 1974.
  • Anzac Day Radio Special presenting aselection of World War I poets, including Wilfred Owen's ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth.’ Radio Northland, Whangarei, 1976.
  • 'Auckland poet, Stephen Oliver, reads from his collection, & Interviews, 7’ 08” T5993, ‘Writing’ programme, Radio National [NZ]; 17 August, 1978.
  • Auckland poet, Stephen Oliver, talks to Elizabeth Alley about his collection Earthbound Mirrors, 3’ 30” TX1779, ‘Writing’ programme, Radio National [NZ]; 1985.
  • ‘Who Killed Brett Whiteley’, ‘Dylan Thomas’, ‘Ballade of A Glossy’, ‘Wild Life Trade’, all recorded and read by author. Writers’ Radio, 5UV, Adelaide, via ComRadStat; Dec 7, 1993.
  • 'From Islands of Wilderness - A Romance’, live interview by Keri Phillips (with Coral Hull), ABC Radio 2CN; Canberra 11.30am, Wednesday July 17, 1996.
  • ‘From Islands of Wilderness - A Romance’, pre-recorded phone interview by Bill Tully, Radio 2XX, Canberra 4.30pm, Wednesday July 17, 1996.
  • ‘Cultural Misappropriation,’ ‘Generation of ‘68’, ‘Bruno Lawrence’, all recorded and read by author. Bookmarks, National Radio, NZ / Plains FM 96.9, Christchurch; November / December, 1999.
  • 'Grey Glas Song' first read by the author on 103.7 FM community radio, Launceston, Tasmania in association with the Tasmanian Poetry Festival, 2001.
  • ‘Conrad & Wells & Co’, ‘A Simple Tale’, ‘Oldest Pine, ‘Emblem for Dead Youth’, ‘King Hit’, all read by Stephen Oliver with music by Matt Ottley. 'Occupations, No 52' under its original title, 'King Hit' sung by Elizabeth Lord. ‘Dear Lady’, read by Elizabeth Lord, music Matt Ottley]. A pre-recorded interview by Johanna Featherstone, broadcast on the Red Room, 89.7 FM Eastside Radio, Paddington, Sydney, Tuesday 13, 11.30am, November 2001.
  • Segments from the master recording, King Hit subsequently broadcast on "Bookmarks" (National Radio), and Plains FM 96.9 (Christchurch), New Zealand, 2002.
  • Poems from the CD King Hit: 'Oldest Pine', 'Emblem For Dead Youth', 'A Simple Tale', and the title poem, 'King Hit' broadcast on 3RRR, Melbourne, 2002.
  • 'Lithgow', first read live by the author on ABC Radio 1233, Newcastle, Monday July 29, 2002.
  • 'Ballad of Miss Goodbar' first read and recorded by the author to an original musical composition by the Sydney songwriter / musician, Peter Head, [Head Office Records] final midi mix down at Nu-Town Studio, Newtown, Sydney, Friday, June 7, 2002, dur: 3’36"; played on ABC Radio 1233, Newcastle, Monday, July 29, 2002, and subsequently, on the ABC network. Registered with APRA in Australia (May, 2016), as 'Ballad of Miss Goodbar' Head P/ Oliver S. GW49644063 with respective addresses.
  • 'True North', read by the Australian Actor, Simon Maiden, Poetica: Stella Polaris, first broadcast on May 6, 2006.
  • 'The Gray Glass Song' from King Hit CD, poems written & read by Stephen Oliver with original music by Matt Ottley, IP Digital, Brisbane, 2007. Broadcast in an interview on ‘The Arts On Sunday’. Lynn Freeman, Radio New Zealand, National, February 24 at 2.40pm, 2008.
  • ‘Ballad of Miss Goodbar, 'Cultural Misappropriation', King Hit CD, Graham Reid, Sidestreets programme, Kiwi FM, Episode 47, March 7, 2009.
  • 'Stalin’s Cotton Socks', 'Ballad of Miss Goodbar', King Hit CD. Graham Reid, Sidestreets programme, Kiwi FM. Episode 56. May 10, 2009.
  • Poem from Deadly Pollen (poem cycle) no 11. read by Jim Mora, Afternoons, Radio New Zealand National, August 25, 2009.
  • 'The Gray Glas Song' (from King Hit CD) broadcast on Headstand Radio Poetry Hour, Cambridge, UK, Wed. Jan 6, 2010.
  • Poems from CD King Hit, written & read by the author with music by Matt Ottley, featured on Rustin Larson’s Irving Toast, Poetry Ghost program - kruu FM, Fairfield, Iowa, closely associated with the University of Iowa Writers Program. Live streamed on May 23 /10:30 am 2010 central US daylight savings time and May 24 1:30 pm central US daylight savings: Available art http://www.kruufm.com/node/8236
  • 'The Great Thirst', from Harmonic, published by Interactive Publications, Brisbane, 2008. The ABC Poetica: World Rivers broadcast date is 10 July 2010.
  • ‘Sister To The Sphinx’, from Apocrypha, Cold Hub Press (2010), read live by the author on Jim Mora’s Afternoon Show / Best Music Ever Played interview segment @ 1.10 pm, July 5, 2011.

Anthologised works

  • A Cage of Words, ed. Harvey McQueen (Longman Paul, Auckland 1980).
  • A Salt Reader, anthology edited by John Kinsella, Salt,WA (1995).
  • Doors, ed. Terry Locke, University of Waikato (Leaders Press, 2000).
  • Jewels in the Water, ed. Terry Locke, University of Waikato (Leaders Press, 2000).
  • Time’s Collision with the Tongue Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology, ed. Jan Owen, Peter Boyle (Coal River Press, Newcastle, Australia 2000).
  • Subversions: Queensland Poetry Festival 1997-2001 Anthology CD (2001).
  • REAL FIRE, A Counter-Anthology, ed. Bernard Gadd (Square One Press, NZ 2001).
  • Open Boat, Barbed Wire Sky – poems for refugees, ed. Sue Hicks and Danny Gardner, Sydney (Live Poets Press, 2003).
  • Poetry NZ / 26. Featured poet. Ed. Alistair Paterson, Brick Row, Auckland (2003).
  • Greatest Hits Anthology, JAAM 21 1984-2004, ed. Michael O’Leary / Mark Pirie, HeadworX/ESAW, Wellington (2004).
  • River of Verse – A Tasmanian Journey 1800-2004 ed. Helen Gee, (Back River Press), Tasmania (2004).
  • Contemporary Australian Poetry in Chinese Translation, co-edited by John Kinsella and Ouyang Yu, translations by Ouyang Yu, (Shanghai: Shanghai Arts and Literature Publishing House (2007).
  • Voyagers. Science Fiction Poetry Anthology, ed. Mark Pirie and Tim Jones, Interactive Publications, Brisbane (2009).
  • Rail Poems of New Zealand Aotearoa, An Anthology, ed. MarkPirie, PANZA, Wellington, (2010).
  • All Together Now: A Digital Bridge for Auckland and Sydney, Vol. 2, eds. Pam Brown, Martin Edmond, Brian Flaherty and Michele Leggott, nzepc online anthology (New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre), Auckland (2010).
  • Guide To Sydney Rivers, An Anthology, ed. Les Wicks, Meuse Press, Sydney (2015).
  • Of Paekakariki / Anthology, ed. Sylvia Bagnall, Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, Paekakariki, NZ (2015).
  • Vek Pevoda / The Age of Translation, an evolving website anthology founded in Moscow 2003 by the Russian writer and translator, Eugen V. Witkowsky, who selected the poem, Streets of Kiev for this anthology, translated into Russian by the Moscow based editor/translator, Max Nemtsov (2015).
  • Manifesto, An Anthology of Political Poetry, ed. Emma Neale and Philip Temple, Otago University Press (2017).
  • Ngā Kupu Waikato: An Anthology of Waikato Poetry, ed., Vaughan Rapatahana (2019).
  • This Twilight Menagerie: A Whakanui of 40 years of Poetry Live, ed. Jamie Trower & Sam Clements / Poetry live, Auckland (2021).
  • The Ultimate Reader of Love For The Book / The Online Anthology, ed. Bill Direen 2021. Writers Deeply Concerned about Massive Book Disposals occurring at the National Library of New Zealand.

Bibliographical links

References

  1. ↑ See Oliver's bio on the Read NZ website at https://www.read-nz.org/writers-files/writer/oliver-stephen. Oliver's year of birth is also given the verso of the title page of Stephen Oliver's Autumn Leaves (Canberra: Greywacke Press, 2021).
  2. ↑ Autumn Leaves, p.17. For information on the pharmacy building, see https://www.wellingtoncityheritage.org.nz/buildings/1-150/55-pharmacy-building
  3. ↑ Autumn Leaves, pp.17, 131-132.
  4. ↑ Autumn Leaves, p. 17.
  5. ↑ Stephen Oliver, Intercolonial (Auckland: Puriri Press, 2013).
  6. ↑ Autumn Leaves, p.39.
  7. ↑ Autumn Leaves, p.3.
  8. ↑ Autumn Leaves, p.66.
  9. ↑ Autumn Leaves, p.93.
  10. ↑ Autumn Leaves, p.83
  11. ↑ Autumn Leaves, p.86-87.
  12. ↑ Autumn Leaves, pp.66, 86-87.
  13. ↑ Autumn Leaves, pp.131, 137.
  14. ↑ Autumn Leaves, p.99
  15. ↑ Autumn Leaves, p.137.
  16. ↑ Autumn Leavesp.202
  17. ↑ Autumn Leaves, pp.204, 209-10,
  18. ↑ Autumn Leaves, p.235ff..
  19. ↑ Autumn Leaves, p.286
  20. ↑ Harvey McQueen, Review of Night of Warehouses, JAAM Magazine (Just Another Art Movement), Vol.17, p.263.
  21. ↑ Michael Morrissey, 'Review of Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page,' selected by Siobhan Harvey, James Norcliffe and Harry Ricketts, (Godwit, 2014), in Landfall Review Online, 1 November 2014, https://landfallreview.com/some-rather-good-new-zealand-poems-the-three-of-us-rather-like/, accessed 13 August 2023.
  22. ↑ Max Nemtsov, Review of Unposted Leaves, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4535240191. See Unposted Leaves, p.246.
  23. ↑ 'Preface' to Broadsheet: New New Zealand Poetry, Issue No. 16, November 2015. See also 'A Belated Review from Michael Morrisey of INTERCOLONIAL by Stephen Oliver, Beattie's Book Blog, 9 July 2015, http://beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com/search?q=intercolonial
  24. ↑ Poetry NZ, Vol.26, https://poetrynz.net/archives/issue-26/.
  25. ↑ 'The poet beyond modernism's twilight', Review of Harmonic by Stephen Oliver, Antipodes Vol.21, No.2, December 2007, pp. 190-191, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41957659December.
  26. ↑ 'Historical Vertigo', Review of Either Side The Horizon by: Nicole Sprague, Antipodes, Vol.20, No.1, June 2006, pp. 97-98, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41957527
  27. ↑ 'Poems for the Thoughtful Sensualist, the Global Citizen', Review of Either Side the Horizon, Antipodes, Vol.20, No.1, June 2006, (pp. 94-95); https://www.jstor.org/stable/41957524.
  28. ↑ Geoff Page, 'Review' in The Australian, 2 March 2019.
  29. ↑ 'The poet beyond modernism's twilight', Review of Harmonic by Stephen Oliver, Antipodes Vol.21, No.2, December 2007, pp. 190-191, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41957659December.
  30. ↑ Review of S. Oliver, Deadly Pollen in Colloquy, Issue 8, https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/1764850/danta.pdf, accessed 15 August 2023.
  31. ↑ Quoted from the back cover of Intercolonial. The quotation was supplied to Oliver by Rodriguez in a personal email.
  32. ↑ 'Arresting diversions', Review of Ballads, Satire & Salt: A Book of Diversions, Antipodes, Vol.19, No.2, December 2005. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41957485'

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