. Poetry Notes Winter 2019 Volume 9, Issue 3 ISSN 1179-7681 Newsletter of PANZA considered one of the red-hot talents of Inside this Issue Welcome my generation. Tandem Press had published Laura Solomon’s first novel, Hello and welcome to issue 35 Black Light, in 1995 when she was 21 Welcome (following issue 34, Summer 2019) of years old, and a second novel followed 1 Poetry Notes, the newsletter of PANZA, in 1996. Laura Solomon 1974-2019 the newly formed Poetry Archive of I anthologised Laura in 1998 as part of by Mark Pirie New Zealand Aotearoa. an exciting new wave of young New Poetry Notes will be now be published Zealand writers at the time in New from time to time and will include Zealand Writing: The NeXt Wave National Poetry Day poem 4 information about goings on at the (Otago University Press, 1998). The Archive, articles on historical New New Zealand Listener review included Obituary: Michael Duffett Zealand poets of interest, occasional photos of us. Laura’s photo had a sign 5 (1943-2019) poems by invited poets and a record of held up saying “Graffiti writing will recently received donations to the lead to instant dismissal”. My own Poetry by Marion Rego Archive. photo showed me smiling in work 6 Articles and poems are copyright in the clothes, very conservative looking in Report: Winter Readings names of the individual authors. comparison. 2019 The newsletter will be available for free I didn’t get to know Laura, however, 7 download from the Poetry Archive’s until she returned in 2007 from overseas New publications by website: where she had been working in IT and PANZA members had bought a house in Nelson. 8 http://poetryarchivenz.wordpress.com I visited Laura twice in Nelson (2011, 2015) and stayed at her house on one Letter to the Editor occasion. Our reason for being in 10 correspondence being that my company Laura Solomon: David Eggleton appointed HeadworX had published Laura NZ Poet Laureate 1974-2019 Solomon’s first poetry collection In Vitro in 2011, which was to be featured Donate to PANZA Wellington writer, editor and publisher at Nelson Live Poets in November that Mark Pirie remembers the late Nelson year. Due to illness, I read Laura’s writer and poet Laura Solomon, who Recently received poems on her behalf at the Yurt, a venue passed away this year after a long battle for concerts and performances, outside donations 11 with illness. the Free House pub. We stayed in touch after, and I About the Poetry Archive My friend and fellow writer Laura continued to be impressed by her Solomon passed away on 18 February dedication to writing and her prolific this year. output despite a serious illness. I again I had known of Laura’s work since my visited her after an operation, while I PANZA time as a student at Victoria University was in Nelson for the ICC Cricket 1 Woburn Road of Wellington in the mid-late ’90s. World Cup at the Saxton Oval in March Northland Laura had already a reputation as a 2015. Laura was not a cricket follower Wellington 6012 novelist at a very young age, and was . Winter 2019 but was pleased to see me take time out Imitation of Life and Alternative Laura Solomon continued to reside in to visit her. Medicine, both eventually published in Nelson until her untimely death in 2019 Besides literary influences (Angela the UK. Solomon completed an MSc in at the age of 44. Carter and others), we shared similar Computer Science at Birkbeck College Gillian and Verner Bickley, Laura’s tastes in music. Bob Dylan and Nirvana at the University of London in 2003. publishers [Proverse Publishing], have were among our favourite She then travelled internationally for her described Laura as “a bright, perceptive, musicians/bands. Nirvana features in work in IT, including working in witty writer, with a keen ear for Solomon’s final poetry collection, Norway for FAST Search and Transfer, dialogue and a wry and objective vision Awakening, published before her death now owned by Microsoft. Her play of modern life. Comedy and tragedy in late 2018. Sprout was produced at the Edinburgh both flowed to her pen from the I was always an admirer of Laura Fringe Festival in 2005. She returned to abundance of her imagination.” Solomon’s writing in prose and poetry. New Zealand to live in Nelson in 2007. She was always very active sending her Her recent fiction continued to find Bibliography work out internationally and met with publication overseas and her poetry her fair share of success in a fickle started to be widely published in New Laura Solomon published extensively in publishing world. Having lived in the Zealand and internationally in prose and poetry. A number of her UK, Laura recognised my own poetry magazines and online sites. Laura books were republished in various being published by Salt Publishing at Solomon won prizes in Bridport, Edwin formats before her death, i.e. eBook and Cambridge as significant. Morgan, Ware Poets, Willesden Herald, print adding to the impression of a What follows is a record of Laura Mere Literary Festival, and Essex prolific output since 2007 when she was Solomon’s publications and some of her Poetry Festival competitions. writing full-time in New Zealand. A poems from the book, In Vitro, that I In 2009, her novella, Instant Messages, check of Amazon will find most of her published in 2011. She was also a jointly won the inaugural Proverse Prize titles available online through several regular contributor to my journal for Fiction in Hong Kong and was international publishers in India, broadsheet: new new zealand poetry. short-listed for the Virginia Prize in the Finland and Hong Kong. A record of Laura was clearly an accomplished, UK. the publication of Solomon’s work can irreverent, energetic and robust writer In 2011, her debut collection of poetry be viewed at: https://www.laurasolomon with a growing corpus of work who was In Vitro appeared from HeadworX in .co.nz/bibliography/ taken from us far too soon. Wellington, New Zealand, and her short Laura Solomon actively supported The story “Sprout” was translated into Fiction End of Life Choice bill, with some of Czech by Olga Walló and appeared in her writing. krásná in the Czech Republic. She was Black Light (Auckland, N.Z.: Tandem also short-listed for the 2014 Press, 1996; Amazon Kindle edition Biography International Rubery Award. 2016). She has since published further fiction Nothing Lasting (Auckland, N.Z.: Laura Solomon was born in Auckland with Proverse Publishing, Hong Kong Tandem Press, 1997; India: Woven on 28 June 1974. Her parents are Lew (Hilary and David and University Days) Words Publishers, 2018). and Kaye Solomon, and she has a sister. and was said to have more fiction works Alternative Medicine [short stories] She grew up in various parts of New accepted for publication by Proverse, (UK: Flame Books, 2008; India: Woven Zealand and Australia, including namely the two sequels to Instant Words Publishers, 2017). Raetihi, Nelson and Tasmania. Messages: The Theory of Networks and An Imitation of Life (UK: Solidus, 2010; Solomon wrote poetry and fiction from Operating Systems. Proverse also Hong Kong: Proverse Publishing, her teens. She graduated from Nayland published the second edition of In Vitro 2013). College, Nelson, in 1991 and later and a second collection of Solomon’s Instant Messages (Hong Kong: Proverse attended the University of Otago in poetry, Freda Kahlo’s Cry, along with a Publishing, 2011). Dunedin where she graduated with a short story collection The Shingle Bar Hilary and David (Hong Kong: Bachelor of Arts degree and wrote her Sea Monster and Other Stories. She has Proverse Publishing, 2011). first novel Black Light. also judged the Sentinel Quarterly Short The Shingle Bar Sea Monster and Other She moved to Wellington in 1996 to do Story Competition in the UK. Stories (Hong Kong: Proverse her Honours (2: 1) in English at Victoria More fiction: Taking Wainui, Hell’s Publishing, 2012). University of Wellington and to write Unveiling and Tales of Love and University Days (Hong Kong: Proverse her second novel Nothing Lasting, and Disability also appeared in India. Publishing, 2014). her play The Dummy Bride, which was Marsha’s Deal was published in Vera Magpie (CreateSpace Independent produced at the Wellington Fringe Finland in 2017. Publishing Platform, 2015). Festival in 1996. In 2018, her final poetry collection, Taking Wainui [short stories] (India: After graduating from Victoria, Awakening, was published in New York Woven Words Publishers, 2017). Solomon left New Zealand and lived by Adelaide Books. Marsha’s Deal (Finland: Creativia, abroad in London, where she wrote An 2017). 2 . Poetry Archive Tales of Love and Disability [short TECTONIC But my, O my, with what fortitude, stories] (India: Woven Words what resilience, Publishers, 2018). This country rests on two great plates. what purpose of mind, they rebuilt the Hell’s Unveiling (India: Woven Words It’s they that produce the instability place. Publishers, 2018). and also the fun stuff – geysers, hot All that glorious Art Deco. Decorated pools, volcanoes. The land never stucco. Poetry sleeps. Street by street, wall by wall, up it went; My grandfather looks out the window the best architects were shipped down In Vitro (Wellington, N.Z.: HeadworX and says, from the big smoke, Publishers, 2011; Hong Kong: Proverse Let’s never forget that terrible to plot and plan and design. Publishing, 2014, 2nd edition). earthquake that devastated Napier There was a carnival of sorts – the city Freda Kahlo’s Cry (Hong Kong: back in ‘31.