Vincent O'Sullivan (New Zealand writer)
Introduction '''Sir Vincent Gerard O'Sullivan'''  (born 28 September 1937) is one of New Zealand's best-known writers. He is a poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, critic, editor, biographer, and librettist.
Early life and family Born in Auckland, O'Sullivan is the youngest of six children born to Timothy O'Sullivan (born in Tralee, Ireland) and Myra O'Sullivan (née McKean). He was educated at St Joseph's Primary, Grey Lynn, and Sacred Heart College, Auckland, in Glendowie. He graduated from the University of Auckland and the University of Oxford.O'Sullivan's first marriage was to Tui Rererangi Walsh, with whom he had two children; Dominic O'Sullivan and Deirdre O'Sullivan. He now lives in Port Chalmers, Dunedin, with his wife Helen.
Career O'Sullivan lectured at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) from 1963 to 1966, and the University of Waikato between 1968 and 1978). He served as literary editor of the ''NZ Listener'' from 1979 to 1980, and then between 1981 and 1987 won a series of writer’s residencies and research fellowships in universities in Australia and New Zealand: VUW, University of Tasmania, Deakin University (Geelong), Flinders University in Adelaide, University of Western Australia, and University of Queensland. These were interrupted in 1983 by a year as resident playwright at Downstage Theatre, Wellington. In 1988 he returned to VUW, where he was professor of English literature until his retirement in 2004.Notable students include Majella Cullinane.
Honours and awards In 1966, O'Sullivan won the NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry, in 1979 he received the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award for a short story, and in 1994 he received the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship. He won the Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry in 1999.O'Sullivan's investiture as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit by the governor-general, Dame Cindy Kiro, at Government House, Wellington, on 2 May 2022In the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours, O’Sullivan was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature. In 2009, following the restoration of titular honours by the New Zealand government, he initially declined redesignation as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, because, in his view, it did not fit New Zealand "historically and socially", and that "it didn't seem to make much sense in contemporary New Zealand society". However, he accepted the change in December 2021.O'Sullivan was awarded the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writer's Fellowship in 2004, the 2005 Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry, and the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in 2006.He was the New Zealand Poet Laureate for the term 2013 to 2015, and in 2016 he was the Honoured New Zealand Writer at the Auckland Writers Festival. ''The Dark is Light Enough: Ralph Hotere a Biographical Portrait'' won for him the 2021 General non-fiction award at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
Works ===Poetry===*1965 ''Our Burning Time''*1969 ''Revenants''*1973 ''Bearings''*1976 ''From the Indian Funeral''*1977 ''Butcher & Co.''*1980 ''Brother Jonathan, Brother Kafka'' (with prints by John Drawbridge)*1982 ''The Rose Ballroom and Other Poems''*1982 ''The Butcher Papers''*1986 ''The Pilate Tapes''*1992 ''Selected Poems''*1988 ''Seeing You Asked''*2001 ''Lucky Table''*2004 ''Nice Morning for It, Adam*2004 Homecoming - Te Hokinga Mai                                                                                                                                             *2007 ''Blame Vermeer''*2009 ''Further Convictions Pending: Poems 1998–2008''*2011 ''The Movie May Be Slightly Different''*2013 ''Us, Then''*2015 ''Being Here: Selected Poems'' *2016 ''And So It Is: New Poems''===Short stories===*1978 ''The Boy, The Bridge, The River''*1981 ''Dandy Edison for Lunch and Other Stories''*1985 ''Survivals''*1990 ''The Snow in Spain: Short Stories''*1992 ''Palms and Minarets: Selected Stories''*2014 ''The Families: Stories''*2022 ''Mary's Boy, Jean-Jacques and other stories''===Novels===*1976 ''Miracle: A Romance''*1993 ''Let the River Stand''*2018 ''All This By Chance''===Plays===*1983 ''Shuriken'' (Downstage, Wellington)*1983 ''Lysistrata'' (not performed)*1984 ''Ordinary Nights in Ward 10'' (New Depot, Wellington) *1988 ''Jones and Jones'' (Downstage, Wellington)*1989 ''Billy'' (Bats Theatre, Wellington)*1994 ''The Lives and Loves of Harry and George'' (Downstage, Wellington)*1996 ''Take the Moon, Mr Casement'' (Court Theatre, Christchurch)*2003 ''Yellow Brides''*2021 Simple Acts of Malice===Nonfiction===*1974 ''Katherine Mansfield's New Zealand'' (revised 2013)*1976 ''James K. Baxter'' (New Zealand Writers and Their Work series)*2002 ''On Longing'' (Montana Essay Series)*2003 ''Long Journey to the Border: A Life of John Mulgan''*2020 ''Ralph Hotere: The Dark is Light Enough''===Edited works===* 1970 ''An Anthology of Twentieth-Century New Zealand Poetry'' (revised 1976 and 1987)*1975 ''New Zealand Short Stories: Third Series''*1983 ''The Oxford Anthology of New Zealand Writing Since 1945'', co-editor with MacDonald P. Jackson*1982 ''The Aloe, with Prelude''*1985 ''Collected Poems: Ursula Bethell''*1988 ''Poems of Katherine Mansfield''*1989 ''The Selected Letters of Katherine Mansfield''*1992 ''The Oxford Book of New Zealand Short Stories''*1993 ''Intersecting Lines: The Memoirs of Ian Milner''*1997 ''New Zealand Stories: Katherine Mansfield''*1984, 1987, 1993, 1996, 2003 ''The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield'' (vols. 1–5), co-editor with Margaret Scott*2006, 2012 ''The Collected Fiction of Katherine Mansfield, 1916–1922'' (vols. 1–2), co-editor with Gerri Kimber=== Librettos ===* 2002 ''Black Ice'' (with composer Ross Harris)* 2004 ''Lines from the Beach House'' (with composer David Farquhar)* 2008 ''The Floating Bride, the Crimson Village'' (with composer Ross Harris)* 2010 ''The Abiding Tides'' (with composer Ross Harris)* 2012 ''Songs for Beatrice: Making Light of Time'' (with composer Ross Harris)* 2014 ''Notes from the Front: Songs on Alexander Aitken'' (with composer Ross Harris)* 2014 ''Requiem for the Fallen'' (with composer Ross Harris)* 2014 ''If Blood Be the Price'' (with composer Ross Harris)* 2016 ''Brass Poppies'' (with composer Ross Harris)* 2018 ''Face'' (with composer Ross Harris)=== Festschrift ===* 2007 ''Still shines when you think of it : a festschrift for Vincent O'Sullivan'', edited by Bill Manhire and Peter Whiteford
Further reading *'10 Questions: Vincent O'Sullivan', New Zealand String Quartet, 20 February 2014*'Vincent O'Sullivan: NZ poet, author, biographer', ''Radio New Zealand'', 28 February 2014*'Ross Harris and Vincent O'Sullivan', Radio New Zealand, 1 March 2016*'Let us now contemplate what to do with Katherine Mansfield's bones: A proposal by Vincent O'Sullivan', ''The Spinoff'', 28 March 2017*'Vincent O'Sullivan's first novel in 20 years a "landmark book" for NZ literature', by Mike White, ''North & South'', 5 November 2018*'The deep discomfort of remembering, Ann Beaglehole', ''New Zealand Review of Books / Pukapuka Aotearoa'', 6 June 2018*''All This By Chance'' reviewed by Nicholas Reid on ''Stuff'', 11 March 2018* 'Book of the Week: The best New Zealand novel of 2018': ''All This By Chance'' reviewed by Elizabeth Alley, ''The Spinoff'', 22 March 2018* ''All This By Chance'' reviewed by Marcus Hobson on NZ Booklovers* ''All This By Chance'' reviewed by Lesley McIntosh on The Reader, NZ Booksellers blog, 19 April 2018*'Acclaimed writers Vincent O’Sullivan and Diana Wichtel explore their very different approaches to representing the Holocaust', ''Radio New Zealand'', 26 December 2018*'The Confession Box: Vincent O'Sullivan', ''The New Zealand Herald'', 11 May 2019
See also *New Zealand literature*Best New Zealand Poems
References
External links * New Zealand Book Council profile* Academy of New Zealand Literature profile* Victoria University Press author page* Penguin Books NZ author page* Steele Roberts author page* Bridget Williams Books (BWB) author page* The New Zealand Poet Laureate Blog* Wellington Writers Walk