Former New Zealand Poet Laureate Bill Manhire joins UEA this semester as a UNESCO City of Literature visiting professor. He will help students to develop their poetry writing skills through a series of masterclasses and tutorials and will appear at the UEA Poetry Festival at the end of April. The UNESCO visiting professorship recognizes Norwich’s status as England’s first World City of Literature, joining Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City, Dublin and Reykjavik. Bill (pictured) is the author of numerous collections of poetry and has won the New Zealand Book Awards poetry prize on five occasions. He has also edited several compilations of New Zealand short stories and poetry, and lectures in English and Creative Writing at Victoria University of Wellington. He received a Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in 2007. UEA’s previous UNESCO visiting professors were James Lasdun and Margaret Atwood, who joined the Creative Writing programme last year, following the appointment of Timberlake Wertenbaker and Ali Smith as the inaugural UNESCO professors in 2012-13.
Bill Manhire joins UEA as a UNESCO City of Literature professor
