Ōtepoti He Puna Auaha, Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature

National Poetry Day and a tenth birthday

Friday 23 August was National Poetry Day and Dunedin Public Libraries, NZ Society of Authors Otago/Southland Branch and Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature joined forces on a free sold-out event to celebrate our extraordinary poets and our tenth birthday year!

The City Library’s 4th floor was transformed with pink baubles and banners thanks to Dunedin Public Libraries’ Jill Bowie, Ali Boyne and Kelcie Watkins-Dooley, and the walls were covered with almost fifty striking poem posters featuring the wonderful poets on the programme.  Jill Bowie also created a beautiful bespoke tenth birthday lamp, which will be permanently displayed on the Ground Floor, City Library.

The night was filled with jazz by the Bill Martin Trio, captivating poetry performances - some accompanied by music and dance, the announcement of the 2024 National Poetry Day Competition winners, and a very special themed birthday cake!

To celebrate this special occasion, and to gather the remarkable collaborative poems written especially for the night, NZ Society of Authors Chair Michelle Elvy published the extraordinary collection perch (available from At The Bay ~ I Te Kokoru ~ Aotearoa Stories).

A proud focus of the night was to honour Janet Frame shortly before the hundredth anniversary of her birth on 28 August. Janet Frame’s literary and personal papers held at Hocken Collections have been inscribed into the UNESCO Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Register and the exhibition Janet Frame's Bookshelf: A Writer's Reading Life is now open at Special Collections, University of Otago Library. 

Heartfelt thanks to Ali Boyne and Dunedin Public Libraries for hosting the special National Poetry Day birthday event in our beautiful City Library, the heart of our City of Literature.

#10YearsDunedinCoL