A Poetry Launch: “The Happiness of Rain” by Jan Hutchison
Yesterday evening I had the great pleasure of attending the launch for poet Jan Hutchison’s third collection, The Happiness of Rain (Steele Roberts.)
You may recall that I featured Jan’s poem Unwinding Matariki’s Hair (which is part of this new collection) as my Tuesday Poem on December 6 last year–you can read it again, together with Jan’s personal comment on the poem, here.
The Happiness of Rain follows Jan’s prior collections, The Long Sleep is Over and Days Among Trees, both also published by Steele Roberts. It features The Coming of the Matariki, which won first place in the Bravado International Poetry Competition 2006—and of course Jan has recently won the Takahe Poetry Competition 2011 for a new poem, Reading the Book Aloud.
I love Jan’s poetry—she is an outstanding wordsmith and poetic craftsperson, and her poems are always insightful, compassionate, and keenly observed. So I was delighted to be able to attend her launch and am very much looking forward to sitting down with The Happiness of Rain—I hope, very soon!
Congratulations, Helen. Just saw news on Beattie that you’ve been awarded a University of Canterbury Ursula Bethell residency. Great news – well done!
Thank you, Jane–it is early days but I am hoping to get a ‘power’ of writing done! And congratulations to you on your forthcoming International Festival of the Arts appearance.