Michele Leggott

Leggott was born in Stratford, New Zealand, and received her secondary education at New Plymouth Girls' High School, before attending the University of Canterbury where she completed an MA in English in 1979. She then moved to Canada to do a PhD at the University of British Columbia.[1] Her dissertation was on the American poet Louis Zukofsky and was published as Reading Zukovsky’s "80 Flowers" (1989).

Leggott began publishing her poetry around 1980. She published Sound Pitch Considered Forms with two Canadian poets in 1984. In 1985 she returned to New Zealand and took up a lectureship at the University of Auckland. She produced her first book of poems, Like This?, in 1988, winning the International PEN First Book of Poetry award.

In her collection of poetry, "As Far as I Can See" (Auckland University Press, 1999), Leggott wrote about her deep sorrow at losing her sight - she began slowly blind in 1985. Leggott was awarded a Blind Achievers Award by the Foundation for the Blind in 1999 for her work on "The Book of Nadath".[2]

In 1991 she published Swimmers, Dancers, with a domestic focus, and in 1995 she won the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry with DIA. On 4 December 2007, she was named New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2008/2009.

Her work has appeared in the Best New Zealand Poems series in 2002 and 2005.

In the 2009 New Year Honours, Leggott was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to poetry.[3]

• 2008/09 New Zealand Poet Laureate
• 2013 Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement[4]

• New Zealand Book Council: Profile
• New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre: Online works and articles