The Plastific Ocean made it over the line for third prize in the Seaweek / World Oceans Day Poetry Competition 2018, organized by the National Aquarium in Napier.
Category Archives: Writing
Life in the Permian: a new poem in Cordite
Poetry Review: David Merrit’s Crisis & Duplication
via Poetry Review: David Merrit’s Crisis & Duplication
Location, location: Meniscus
I have had three poems published in the new edition of the Australasian journal Meniscus. One of which Location, location received the Copyright Agency Ltd Best Poem for this issue award. The journal is available free online.
Hierarchies and Minarets
My new poem The Hierarchy has just been published in NZ journal Min-a-rets Issue 8.
Ambient Terror reviewed in New Zealand Poetry Yearbook 2018
The writer Laura Solomon has written a very generous review of Ambient Terror for the just released Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2018. Published by Massey University Press and edited by Jack Ross, the revamped magazine also features a wide range of work from New Zealand poets including a substantial feature on the work of AlastairContinue reading “Ambient Terror reviewed in New Zealand Poetry Yearbook 2018”
People Control
A response to the madness of the contemporary world.
Ambient Terror – a forthcoming review from Takahē
Takahē magazine and Shelley Chappell have kindly given permission for this review by Shelley to appear in advance of publication in the forthcoming issue 92 of Takahē. Victor Billot is a Dunedin writer of poetry and short stories, also known for his work as a parliamentary candidate. A publicist for Otago University Press, he alsoContinue reading “Ambient Terror – a forthcoming review from Takahē”
Once in a blue moon
I was very happy to get placed 2nd in the 2017 Dunedin Chinese Garden Moon Festival poetry competition. I wrote a mutant villanelle on the theme of ‘Once in a Blue Moon.’ They produced some nice posters of the winning entries.
In the zone
Ambient Terror on Landfall Review Online
An insightful and generous review of Ambient Terror by Piet Nieuwland, alongside reviews of the great Peter Olds and Auckland poet Shane Hollands. Nice to be in such company. “[A] rolling, blustering word-river of nanobytes, phrase chunks, alliterations and acrobatic satirical loops, held together by number-eight wire rhyme – great fun . . . MyContinue reading “Ambient Terror on Landfall Review Online”
The world is flat
The East Coast as Christmas Dinner from an Airbus
The Finishing Time
I enjoyed writing a poem for the Given Words competition as part of National Poetry Day. Five words were supplied which you had to include in your poem. The winner was a fellow Dunedinite Elizabeth Brooke–Carr who wrote a very good entry (which is now translated into Spanish) and who also had a poem inContinue reading “The Finishing Time”
The 2035 New Zealand Poet Laureate writes on the occasion of the election of the Tenth Term of the National Government
Let’s make sure this remains a morbid fantasy not a fact. Vote on 23 September. – VB Fellow citizens, we celebrate today The Surplus. From all levels of the Survival Dome, we gather in solemn appreciation in a National Minibreak of Gratitude. Could all digital devices and personal teleportation equipment be turned to apocalypse mode.Continue reading “The 2035 New Zealand Poet Laureate writes on the occasion of the election of the Tenth Term of the National Government”
