Bernadette Hall (born 1945) is a New Zealand playwright and poet.
Biography Hall was born in 1945 in Alexandra, New Zealand. She was raised in what she describes as "a small-city Catholic community that was proud, theatrical and pretty much enclosed." After a career as a teacher of Latin and classical studies, she started writing full-time in her forties.Bernadette Hall biography at Victoria University Press She has held residencies at both Canterbury University and Victoria UniversityBook launch at Christchurch Arts Festival and is widely published.Bernadette Hall biography at the IIMLBernadette Hall biography at the New Zealand Electronic Text Center She spent 10 years as the editor of Takahe magazine and five as the poetry editor of The Press, Christchurch's main daily newspaper.
Hall's poetry collection The Lustre Jug was a finalist in the 2010 New Zealand Post Book Awards.New Zealand Post Book Awards Finalists 2010
She is the patron of Hagley Writers' Institute.
Works
Plays Glad and the Angels (1992)Bernadette Hall biography at the New Zealand Book Council The Clothesline (1993)Bernadette Hall bibliography at The NZ Literature File The Girl Who Sings Waterfalls (1992)
Poetry collections Heartwood (Caxton Press, Christchurch, 1989)Bernadette Hall biography at the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre. of Elephants etc. (Untold Press, 1990) The Persistent Levitator (Victoria University Press, 1994) Still Talking (Victoria University Press, 1997) Settler Dreaming (Victoria University Press, 2001) The Merino Princess: Selected Poems (Victoria University Press, 2004) The Ponies (Victoria University Press, 2007) The Lustre Jug (Victoria University Press, 2009) Life & Customs (Victoria University Press, 2014)
Awards and honours 1991 – Writer in residence at the University of Canterbury 1996 – Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago 2004 – Antarctica New Zealand Arts Fellowship 2006 – Writer's fellowship at Victoria University 2015 – Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement in Poetry 2017 – Appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature, in the 2017 New Year Honours
References