Perch

About the book This year, we celebrate ten years of Otepoti Dunedin as Aotearoa New Zealand’s UNESCO City of Literature, and 100 years of Janet Frame. Within these pages, readers will find original work from 60 writers: collaborative and individual poems, celebrated poets and new voices. The book also includes works by Janet Frame, Peter Olds, Elizabeth Brooke-Carr and Vincent O’Sullivan. The book opens with a poem by Robert Sullivan and closes with Dunedin soundscapes. On every page between, there is something special about this place – our histories, our perspectives; the colours, rhythms and moods of our landscapes and our selves. Here in Otepoti, we have much to examine, and celebrate, from hills to harbour. Cover art: Manu Berry The city fits me like a balaclava… one collaborative piece observes, and while this slyly alludes to the weather, it also celebrates the warmth Dunedin’s writers feel for their southern city. Perch vindicates – if any vindication were needed – that Otepoti Dunedin has been justly dubbed a City of Literature. – JAMES NORCLIFFE 2023 PRIME MINISTER’S AWARD FOR LITERARY ACHIEVEMENT IN POETRY From the opening poem, with the book’s title, to the final poem’s nod to a night of celebration, Perch will capture your heart and imagination. This handsome volume, which gathers sixty extraordinary poets, is dedicated to Otepoti, and the city reverberates in each stanza. Whether you’re from Otepoti or just visiting, these astonishing poems will make you laugh and cry and everything in between. And if you don’t know the city yet, you soon will! – NICKY PAGE KAITOHU HE PUNA AUAHA | DIRECTOR CITY OF LITERATURE OTEPOTI HE PUNA AUAHA | DUNEDIN UNESCO CITY OF LITERATURE