. Poetry Notes Spring 2015 Volume 6, Issue 3 ISSN 1179-7681 Quarterly Newsletter of PANZA regularly asked Patricia to review poetry Inside this Issue Welcome for me. I admired her reviews because she focused specifically on the work at Hello and welcome to issue 23 of hand and the individual creative Welcome Poetry Notes, the newsletter of PANZA, impulses that construct a poet’s work. 1 the newly formed Poetry Archive of She was both reliable and truthful in her An Interview with New Zealand Aotearoa. reviewing. I retired from editing JAAM Patricia Prime Poetry Notes will be published quarterly in 2005 (Helen Rickerby and Clare and will include information about Needham continued the magazine) and JAAM history goings on at the Archive, articles on the review section closed down but 5 historical New Zealand poets of interest, Patricia and I are now regular National Poetry Day poem occasional poems by invited poets and a contributors to Tony Chad’s magazine by Francis Cloke record of recently received donations to Valley Micropress. 6 the Archive. Recognising the impressive listings of Poetry by MaryJane Articles and poems are copyright in the Patricia Prime’s publications both in Thomson names of the individual authors. 7 New Zealand and overseas in the last 20 The newsletter will be available for free years, I sought her out for an interview Further comment on download from the Poetry Archive’s Geoffrey Pollett to record her significant contribution to 8 website: New Zealand and world literature. It is Further comment on often the case that, like a sportsperson John O’Connor http://poetryarchivenz.wordpress.com making an impact overseas, we are blind to their achievements back home. Paekakariki Arts Walk It’s important to put on record here 9 An Interview with Patricia’s diverse writing life, where she C K Stead appointed has specialised in some niche forms NZ Poet Laureate Patricia Prime such as Japanese tanka prose and 5-line tanka poetry. New publications by Here are some biographical details for PANZA members Wellington writer, researcher and Patricia: PANZA archivist Mark Pirie interviews Donate to PANZA through the New Zealand poet and editor, PayPal Patricia Prime was born in 1939 and 11 Patricia Prime. was educated in England at La Recently received Retraite Roman Catholic Girls’ Patricia Prime is one of the hard- School where she obtained two donations workers in New Zealand literary circles. A-levels and a diploma in shorthand About the Poetry Archive I first came in contact with her through and typing. She then worked as a the journals Spin, edited by secretary for Newnes, a publishing p n w donnelly, and Micropress NZ, company in London. In New Zealand edited by Kate O’Neill, in the mid- she obtained her degree in English PANZA 1990s. Around that time, I had started extramurally from Massey University, 1 Woburn Road editing the journal JAAM at Victoria Palmerston North, and gained a Northland University and she became a Diploma of Education from the Wellington 6012 contributor. As JAAM reviews editor, I Auckland School of Education. She . Spring 2015 was supervisor of a kindergarten for short stories and novels. My first article I also encountered the avant-garde 30 years in Auckland. was published in Metro and I had American poetry magazine SlugFest, Patricia lives in Te Atatu South, several articles published in Broadsheet which was published three times a year Auckland, and is currently co-editor (the women’s journal) and in American for about five years. I contributed of Kokako and the reviews/interviews journals. poems, reviews and interviews to the editor of Haibun Today. She is a magazine over this period. I became reviewer for Takahē, Atlas Poetica, MP: Recently, I read the journal good writing friends with two of the Metverse Muse and other journals. plainwraps (1989-1991), and found poets: one a Professor of English from She is a member of The New Zealand your name among the contributors. Prague, and the other a hermit, Uncle Poetry Society, The New Zealand Others I found your name in besides River, who lives in the American desert, Society of Authors and the Tanka JAAM were Bravado, Poetry NZ, where he is self-sufficient. He has Society of America. She is on the Magazine, Valley Micropress, published several sci-fi novels and I panel of editors for the Indian Southern Ocean Review and Takahē. reviewed one or two of them for the publication Poetcrit, and the tanka You have contributed to NZ poetry magazine. journal Gusts. Patricia is on the magazines for many years. The Spin editorial panel of the Indian orbital workshop is one of the main MP: This led to further overseas publication New Fiction Journal and groups involving you. Tell us about publication? is a member of the Guild of Indian this. English Writers, Critics and Editors. PP: Yes, I have also published poems, PP: I joined the Spin orbital group, and the occasional review or essay in Abbreviations used: MP = Mark Pirie; where each orbit shared their poems the overseas publications Poetry PP: Patricia Prime with a small group of other poets for Salzburg Review, edited by Professor feedback and criticism. Through the Wolfgang Görtschacher (Austria), MP: When did you arrive in New orbit our group decided to meet Meteore Meteore, edited by Mryiam Zealand? Did you have reasons for occasionally at the poet/editor p n w Pierri and Giovanni Campisi (Italy) and choosing to live here? donnelly’s house for discussions about Babel, an international journal of our ongoing work. translation, edited by Dr. Réne PP: My husband and I immigrated to Haeseryn (Belgium). In 1998 Les New Zealand in 1975 with our four MP: Through this writing Éditions David published ten of my children, age 2 to 10. My husband was association, you edited the Winter haiku in the Anthology of Haiku, offered a job here with the same issue of Spin. Tell us about the directed by André Duhaime, Canada. printing company for whom he worked magazines you have edited or worked Many pieces of work were also in Britain. It was a great opportunity to on. published by Jane Reichhold in the move to a new country with a more online Canadian magazine LYNX, in easy-going lifestyle, plenty of PP: David Drummond originally edited Gusts (editor Kozue Uzawa) and in opportunities and a safe country in Spin and after he died p n w donnelly Haiku Canada Review (editor LeRoy which to bring up a family. continued as its editor, along with Gorman). I won a prize for my haiku several other editors over a period of entry in a contest commemorating the MP: When did you first start time. The magazine was later edited by 10th anniversary of the HIA (Japan), writing? the late Bernard Gadd and myself. and an award for my haiku for the Previously, Bernard and Catherine Mair A-Bomb Memorial Day (Japan). PP: I suppose I could give two answers. decided to publish two issues annually: The first approach is the more private the spring issue Spin and the winter MP: In the 1990s, you edited an one of manipulating language in the issue WinterSpin. The first issue anthology of New Zealand poetry way many people do in their teens when published traditional poetry and the published in India. Tell us about how I sent poems to women’s magazines and second issue published the Japanese this came about. the children’s pages of newspapers and short forms of haiku and tanka. Spin my writing appeared in my school eventually declined. Later, Bernard and PP: A friend in England published a magazine. Writing became more of an I named the haiku version Kokako. I’ve booklet called Light’s List, which listed interest for me after the early death of co-edited Kokako twice a year for 23 worldwide publications, and I sent him my husband, and my young daughter issues with a variety of editors and the names and addresses of publications and I went to a creative writing course presently work with Margaret in New Zealand and Australia. From the at the local high school. My daughter no Beverland. booklet, I obtained the names of longer participated after the first year We publish haiku, tanka, haibun, rengay overseas magazines and submitted my but I went on to take a correspondence and several reviews in each issue and work to various journals. I submitted course in writing through The Writing introduced a haiku or tanka competition poems to several of the Indian School of Wellington. The course which takes place every alternate year. publications listed in the booklet. My taught lessons in playwriting, articles, work writing and publishing in India 2 . Poetry Archive began with a contact from Professor Accepting Summer was published in feeling of haiku and suggested we try R K Singh who asked me to review his 2001 by Bahri Publications. the Japanese forms of poetry. Since book. This led to the publication of I also came in contact with the then, Catherine and I have self- Every Stone Drop Pebble, a collection Mongolian editor, Professor Hadaa published several of our collections of of haiku by myself, Catherine Mair and Sendoo, and submitted poems to him for haiku, tanka, haibun, and collaborative Professor R K Singh, and the editing of The World Poetry Almanac. My poems, tanka sequences. the poetry anthology, Something an interview and reviews have been Between Breaths, both published by published in the publication every year MP: Recently, you have become a Bahri Publications, India, in the 1990s. since 2007: the latest issue contains two prolific contributor to the magazine collaborative tanka prose pieces by Valley Micropress.