Welcome

Best New Zealand Poems is an annual online publication by the International Institute of Modern Letters, which aims to introduce readers—especially internationally—to leading contemporary New Zealand poets. Browse the current issue to find out more.

The Best of Best New Zealand Poems (Victoria University Press, 2011), celebrates the first decade of this online collection in book form. Edited by founding publisher Bill Manhire and writer Damien Wilkins, the anthology showcases more than sixty poems from previous issues and features some of the best-known figures in New Zealand poetry alongside compelling new writers.

Contributing poets were also invited to record their poem and you can listen to the recordings below, as well as link to the poem itself. Where a recording is currently unavailable we have included a link to the poem page and will add more audio files as they become available.

Click on ‘listen to’ to hear the poet read their work, or ‘read’ to link to the poem itself. A link to the audio recording will also be added at the bottom of each poem.

1: Audio available courtesy of the nzepc website. Scroll to ‘Tapa in the Park 8 May 2007 [video wmv]’ under Links.

2: Audio available courtesy of the Poetry Archive website.

Credits

Creative New Zealand NZETC Victoria University of Wellington