Ian Curtis Wedde (born 17 October 1946) is a New Zealand poet, fiction writer, critic, and art curator.
Biography Born in Blenheim, New Zealand, Wedde lived in East Pakistan and England as a child before returning to New Zealand. He attended King's College and the University of Auckland, graduating with an MA in English in 1968.Anthology of New Zealand Poetry in English, Oxford University Press, 1997.
Wedde started publishing poetry in 1966. He travelled in Jordan and England in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and returned to New Zealand to live in Port Chalmers in 1972. In 1975 he moved to Wellington.
From 1983 to 1990 Wedde was the art critic for The Evening Post. He co-edited The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse with Harvey McQueen in the mid 1980s, and The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry with McQueen and Miriama Evans in 1989. He became the arts project manager at Te Papa in 1994 where he curated the opening art exhibition Parade that controversially paired McCahon's Northland Panels with a 1950s refrigerator.
A collection of essays, Making Ends Meet, was published in 2005.Making Ends Meet Essays and Talks 1992-2004
Wedde was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to art and literature.
In August 2011, Wedde was appointed New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2011-2013.
Poetry collections 1971: Homage to Matisse 1974: Made Over 1975: Pathway to the Sea 1975: Earthly: Sonnets for Carlos 1977: Spells for Coming Out 1980: Castally: Poems 1973–1977 1984: Tales of Gotham City 1984: Georgicon 1987: Driving into the Storm: Selected Poems 1988: Tendering 1993: The Drummer 2001: The Commonplace Odes 2005: Three Regrets and A Hymn to Beauty 2009: Good Business 2013: The Lifeguard: Poems 2008-2013 2017: Selected Poems
Fiction 1976: Dick Seddon’s Great Dive, winner of the Book Award for Fiction in 1977 1981: The Shirt Factory and Other Stories 1986: Symmes Hole 1988: Survival Arts 2005: Chinese Opera 2006: The Viewing Platform 2020: The Reed Warbler
Notes
References New Zealand Book Council New Zealand electronic poetry centre New Zealand electronic text centre
External links Interview with Ian Wedde for Cultural Icons project. Audio. NZ 6-Seater: A Chapbook Curated by Ian Wedde. eChapbook.