New Zealand Writers

BRIDGE, Diana

Poised, elegantly wrought poems, full of lively intelligence.

BRIDGE, Diana (1942 - ) is a poet whose work reflects her interest in Asian culture and language. She has studied, researched and taught Chinese language, literature and art history, and early Indian art history, and holds a PhD in Chinese literature.

Of her first collection of poetry, Landscape with Lines (1996), 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, wrote that Bridge "spans the distance between myth and reality as easily as she travels from one culture to another." While in New Zealand Books, Janet Hughes admires the "poised, elegantly wrought poems, full of lively intelligence."

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."

Diana Bridge's third poetry collection, Porcelain, was published in 2001.

(KC. )

Updated Information

Bridge's latest poetry collection is Red Leaves (Auckland University Press, 2005).