Robert Sullivan
Robert Sullivan is a poet currently residing in Hawai'i USA.
Robert Sullivan is a member of the Nga Puhi iwi of Northland in New Zealand and of the South Island iwi Kai Tahu. He is also of Galway Irish descent.
Since 1990 he has written four books of poetry published by Auckland University Press (most recently, Captain Cook in the Underworld, which is also a libretto for a composition by John Psathas), a graphic novel illustrated by Chris Slane called Maui: legends of the outcast, and a children's book Weaving earth and sky: myths and legends of Aotearoa (Random House) - which won both Book of the Year and the Non-Fiction Category in the 2003 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. His first book, Jazz Waiata, won the PEN (NZ) Best First Book of Poetry award. He has most recently co-edited with Professor Albert Wendt and Reina Whaitiri an anthology of Polynesian poetry in English, Whetu Moana (AUP and University of Hawaii Press, 2003) which won the Montana NZ Book Award in the reference and anthology category.
In 1998 he was the Literary Fellow at the University of Auckland, and in 2001 the Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Hawai'i. His next book of poetry, Voice Carried My Family, is forthcoming from AUP in 2005. This year he is a fiction judge for the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize worth US$15,000 based in San Francisco.
Robert is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, where he teaches creative writing and Pacific literature. He is working on a novel and a screenplay.
Links:
Read about Robert Sullivan on the NZ Book Council website
Read excerpts from Star Waka, published by Auckland University Press
Robert Sullivan information page in the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre website
Pike Ake - a free online publication by Robert Sullivan on the Trout website. Trout is an online journal and publishing house for literature from Aotearoa/New Zealand and the Pacific Islands
Robert Sullivan in conversation on the Water Bridge Review website