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| Robert Sullivan. Photo supplied |
Robert Sullivan’s nine books of poetry include the bestselling Star Waka (Auckland University Press, 1999), reprinted five times, translated into German (Mana Verlag), and short-listed for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards (2000). His newest collection of poems, the bestselling Hopurangi / Songcatcher: Poems from the Maramataka, was shortlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
His epic, Captain Cook in the Underworld was a finalist in the Poetry Category for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards (2003). It is also an oratorio for the composition by John Psathas, Orpheus in Rarohenga, performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Orpheus Choir of Wellington for the choir’s fiftieth anniversary. Robert’s poem ‘Kawe Reo / Voices Carry’ is installed in bronze in front of the Auckland City Library. His first collection, Jazz Waiata, won the Jessie McKay PEN (NZ) Best First Book Award in 1991.
As an editor, he worked with Maualaivao Albert Wendt and Reina Whaitiri on the groundbreaking anthologies of Polynesian poetry in English, Whetu Moana and Mauri Ola. The first anthology won the Montana New Zealand Book Award for Reference and Anthology (2004). He also edited with Reina Whaitiri the major anthology of Māori poets in English, Puna Wai Kōrero which won the Creative Writing category in the Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards in 2015. His most recent anthology is Koe: An Aotearoa Ecopoetry Anthology edited with Janet Newman (2024).
His poetry appears in numerous literary magazines and journals in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States.
Other awards include The Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for a distinguished contribution to New Zealand Poetry (2022), Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Hawaii (2001), and the University of Auckland Literary Fellowship (1998).
As well as poetry, his children’s book of Māori myths and legends, Weaving Earth and Sky, illustrated by Gavin Bishop, listed as a Storylines Notable Non-Fiction Book (2003), won the Non-Fiction category and the New Zealand Post Children’s Book of the Year (2003).
His graphic novel Maui: Legends of the Outcast, illustrated by Chris Slane, was shortlisted for the LIANZA Russell Clark Medal.
Robert has participated in many writing festivals throughout New Zealand including Kupu: the Māori Writers Festival, the Auckland Writers Festival, Christchurch Word, New Zealand Readers and Writers Week, Wellington’s Verb Festival, Dunedin Writers Festival, Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers Festival, Northland Writers’ Festival, and Words on Wheels (WoW) in the South Island, and the Honouring Words Indigenous Writers tour of the North Island.
His international festivals include the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Vancouver, Calgary, Mumbai, Honolulu, and Toronto writers’ festivals, and Taipei International Book Exhibition.
He has a PhD in English (supervised by Selina Tusitala Marsh), an MA Hons (supervised by Maualaivao Albert Wendt), and a BA in English and Māori Studies all from the University of Auckland. He also has a Diploma in Library and Information Studies (Victoria University) and a Diploma in Teaching (Waikato University). Robert studied also at Newmarket Primary, Onehunga Primary, Manukau Intermediate (Royal Oak), and Auckland Grammar.
He worked as a librarian at Auckland Public Library, and the University of Auckland Library. He then worked as an academic focusing on creative writing at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Manukau Institute of Technology, and Massey University Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa where he is Associate Professor in Creative Writing.
Currently he is President of the New Zealand Poetry Society / Te Rōpū Toikupu o Aotearoa.
Robert belongs to Ngāpuhi Nui Tonu (Ngāti Hau, and Ngāti Manu), and Kai Tahu (Kāti Huirapa ki Puketeraki), with affiliations to Ngāti Raukawa, and Ngāi Tai. He is also of Irish, Scottish and English descent. He lives in Oāmaru on the coastline known as Te Tai o Āraiteuru.
