Sweeping the Courtyard

Sweeping the courtyard, the selected poems of Michael Harlow, provides a generous sampling from this major New Zealand poet's previous seven collections: Edges (1974), Nothing but Switzerland and Lemonade (1980), Today is the Piano's Birthday (1981), Vlaminck's Tie (1985), Giotto's Elephant (1991), Cassandra's Daughter (2005, 2006), and The Tram Conductor's Blue Cap (2009, Finalist National Book Awards 2010). "What does it mean, in the face of the absurd and shadowy things thrown up by life, to risk delight? What is it that 'love dares the self to do and be'?" --Michael Harlow Michael Harlow was born in the USA and travelled extensively, before arriving in New Zealand in 1968. His book Nothing But Switzerland and Lemonade (1980) was the first volume of prose poems to be published in New Zealand. He has published five collections of poems with Auckland University Press. Giotto's Elephant was a finalist in the 1992 New Zealand Book Awards. The Tram Conductor's Blue Cap, a finalist in 2009, moved NZ reviewer Terry Locke to remark that "Harlow is at the peak of his powers and is in the top echelon of New Zealand poets currently practising their craft". Michael has been editor of the Caxton Press poetry series and poetry editor of New Zealand's main literary journal, Landfall. He was Katherine Mansfield Fellow in Menton, France, 1986-87. In 2006 he represented New Zealand at the Festival Internacional de Poesia de Medellin, Colombia, and at the IV Internacional Seminar of Writers, 'Frontiers in Movement' in Monterey, Mexico. In 2007 he participated in the IV World Poetry Festival in Caracas, Venezuela and was the first New Zealand poet to take part in the Festival Internacional de Poesia de Granada, Nicaragua (to which he was invited back in 2014). He was the Robert Burns Fellow (New Zealand's most prestigious writing residency) at the University of Otago, and Caselberg Artist in Residence, in 2009.