Bridge, Diana
IN BRIEF
Diana Bridge is a poet who has published several collections since the release of her first book, Landscape with Lines (1996). John Horrocks wrote in Poetry NZ that her collection Red Leaves (AUP 2005) 'supports the case that she is one of the very best among New Zealand poets.' Bridge also holds a PhD in Chinese literature. Bridge's fifth collection, aloe & other poems (AUP), was released on Poetry Day 2009.
ProfilePlace of residence: Wellington |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bridge, Diana (1942 –) is a poet who has published several collections since the release of her first book, Landscape with Lines in 1996.
In New Zealand Books, Janet Hughes admires the ‘poised, elegantly wrought poems, full of lively intelligence,’ in this first collection. Will Leadbeater writes: ‘Startling imagery, a deep immersion in Chinese and Indian culture and a subtle verbal technique distinguish this...poet's debut collection.’ K. Satchidanadan in The Book Review, New Delhi, comments that Bridge ‘spans the distance between myth and reality as easily as she travels from one culture to another.’
Bridge's second collection is The Girls on the Wall (1999). ‘There is light and life in these translucent, mesmeric structures of erudite thinking and elliptic emotion,’ writes Kapka Kassabova. In Heat, Judith Beveridge writes that Bridge brings ‘a discernment to her subjects that is modest yet astute; an intensity which is lens-like in its ability to capture the tensions of a life lived shifting amongst cultures,' and 'Bridge's poems engage the reader through intimacy of tones and voice and through her ability to give delicate expression to a range of emotions. She is a poet of refinement and distillation, a poet whose work is free of self-conscious mannerisms or affectations, yet whose work can probe and startle in many unexpected ways.'
Diana Bridge's third poetry collection, Porcelain, was published in 2001. Nicholas Reid writes in a review in Glottis, 'Coleridge claimed that the best works are those that we return to with greatest pleasure. For some of us, that means poems which we might wish to teach, or even (is this the greatest compliment?) to set as practical criticism exercises for student examinations. And by this standard, Diana Bridge succeeds handsomely in her new collection, Porcelain.' Terry Locke writes about the collection in English in Aotearoa, 'In one sense, these poems are not spare. They are a wonderful testimony to cultural enrichment, to a life whose vistas have multiplied in contact with the great traditions of Asia. At a time when our own responses to refugees (let's forget the Australians for a moment) is in the spotlight, this is a timely volume in more ways than one.'
Cath Kenneally responds the collection in Landfall, 'Bridge's poems build up an accretion of images and rhythms and phrasings that seem to be modelled on at least a version of 'oriental' writing: spare, telling arrangements that make the most of the least possible...There is a scholarly respect for the ancient wisdoms behind this book, along with a willingness to identify ever-repeated mistakes. What could have been a gushy travelogue becomes a collection of beautiful specimens admired but nonetheless pinned with the entomologist's ruthlessness under glass. While the poet uses the riddles and honeyed diction of venerable tradition, she wants us to judge.'
Bridge's collection Red Leaves was published by Auckland University Press in 2005. John Horrocks wrote in Poetry NZ , 'Her latest book supports the case that she is one of the very best among New Zealand poets.' Hugh Roberts of the New Zealand Listener comments on Red Leaves, 'Bridge is a poet who weighs every syllable of every line, arranging words and images with infinite care...it is a rarer pleasure than it should be to read a poet who writes with such evident attentiveness to aesthetic effect. Bridge demands at least as much thought and care from herself in writing the poem as she would hope to receive from her readers...No doubt this is one reason her poems about India (another large section of the volume) work so much better than 'travelogue' material usually works in contemporary poetry. She invites the reader to join her as an interested and intelligent outsider, without reducing an ancient and complex civilization to a bit player in a voyage of self-discovery.'
She has studied, researched and taught Chinese language, literature and art history, and early Indian art history, and holds a PhD in Chinese literature from the Australian National University, Canberra. A Translation Paper, ‘An Unexpected Legacy: Xie Tiao’s poems on things' was published in 2008 by the Asian Studies Institute and the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation. An essay, 'O to be a dragon', considering some of the Asian repertoires and locations of her work was published in 2008 in the New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies. The same year her essay on the China-based poems of Robin Hyde appeared in Mary Edmond Paul ed Lighted Windows: critical essays on Robin Hyde.
Bridge's fifth collection, Aloe & Other Poems (Auckland University Press), was released on Poetry Day in July 2009.
(Last updated: February 2010)
writers in schools information
Diana Bridge is available to talk to students about being a poet as part of the Book Council's Writers in Schools programme. She is able to give an introductory talk, give a reading and a Question and Answer session, as well as a poetry performance. She can also conduct a creative writing workshop and a Gifted and Talented workshop with sufficient notice. She prefers to speak to students in years 11 and 12, and in groups of 5-10, with a maximum of 20 students.
