2007. He received the Lilian Ida Smith Award in 1987 for fiction and in 1989 for poetry. He was appointed the first New Zealand Poet Laureate in 1996, and from January to May 1999 was the Fulbright visiting professor in New Zealand studies at Georgetown University. In the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature, and that same year received an honorary doctorate of literature from the University of Otago. In 2010 he was appointed a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi. In 2015 he was the UNESCO visiting professor of creative writing at the University of East Anglia. In 2018, the Arts Foundation of New Zealand bestowed on him the Icon Award, an award recognising New Zealand's greatest artists, which is limited to 20 living recipients. In 2021 he received an honorary doctorate of literature from University College London. His work has won the Poetry Prize at the New Zealand Book Awards six times: 1978: How to Take Your Clothes Off at the Picnic 1985: Zoetropes 1992: Milky Way Bar 1994: 100 New Zealand Poems (as editor) 1996: My Sunshine 2006: Lifted Notable students Personal life He is married to journalist Marion McLeod, and has two children, Vanessa and Toby, who are both journalists and writers. Selected works Poetry 1970: Malady (with Ralph Hotere) (Dunedin: Amphedesma Press) 1972: The Elaboration (with Ralph Hotere) (Wellington: Square & Circle) 1977: How to Take Off Your Clothes at the Picnic (Wellington: Wai-te-ata Press) 1979: Dawn/Water (Eastbourne: Hawk Press) 1981: Zoetropes (London: The Murihiku Press) 1982: Good Looks (Auckland: Auckland University Press) 1984: Zoetropes: Poems 1972–82 (Wellington, Port Nicholson Press; Sydney: Allen & Unwin; Manchester: Carcanet Press) 1990: The Old Man's Example (Wellington: Wrist & Anchor Press) 1991: Milky Way Bar (Wellington: Victoria University Press; Manchester: Carcanet Press) 1995: Selected Poems (Wellington: Victoria University Press) 1996: My Sunshine (Wellington: Victoria University Press) 1996: Sheet Music: Poems 1967–1982 (Wellington: Victoria University Press) 1999: What to Call Your Child (Auckland: Godwit / Random House New Zealand) 2001: Collected Poems (Wellington: Victoria University Press; Manchester: Carcanet Press) 2005: Lifted (Wellington: Victoria University Press) 2005: Pine (with Ralph Hotere) (Dunedin: Otakou Press) 2010: The Victims of Lightning (Wellington: Victoria University Press) 2017: Some Things to Place in a Coffin (Wellington: Victoria University Press) 2020: Wow (Wellington: Victoria University Press; Manchester: