Bullock, Owen
IN BRIEF
Poet and editor Owen Bullock was born and lived in Wales before settling in New Zealand. Bullock has won awards for his haiku poetry and is widely published in New Zealand and overseas. His play Noah’s Egg was staged in Hamilton as part of the FUEL Festival of Theatre in 2006. He has been an editor of both Spin and Bravado magazines, as well as co-editor of Kokako, New Zealands only specialist haiku magazine, and an associate editor of Poetry NZ.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bullock, Owen (1967 –) is a poet and editor.
Bullock was born in Cornwall and lived in Wales before settling in New Zealand. Bullock completed a MA in English at Waikato University and has since worked primarily as a poet and editor.
Bullock’s poetry was featured in Poetry NZ #27. He has produced two chapter books: summer, Hauraki Plains and after the buddhist comes to call (Hen Enterprises). He has won awards for his haiku poetry and published in over 60 magazines in seven countries. His Noh play, Noah’s Egg was staged in Hamilton as part of the FUEL Festival of Theatre in 2006. He has been an editor of both Spin and Bravado magazines, and is currently co-editor of Kokako - New Zealands only specialist haiku magazine, and Associate Editor of Poetry NZ.
Writing in Poetry NZ, Alistair Paterson describes Bullock’s work as ‘poetry that balances colloquial language and the everyday happenings and events against a juxtaposition of semiotic writing technique and existentialist philosophy.’
writers in schools information
KAPAI: Kids' Authors' Pictures and Information
Where do you live?
Waihi
What books do you read?
LOTS of contemporary poetry, occasionally whodunits, literary theory, psychology; often books on personal growth.
Who is your favourite author?
Pooja Mittal (NZ poet) Leonard Cohen (lyrics writers are poets); Paul Gallico (novelist), Samuel Beckett, Tolstoy.
How do you think up your ideas?
They come to me in a flash that cannot be ignored. I don’t ‘think them up’, that is impossible, they arrive!
What is the best thing about being an author?
Expressing myself: sharing observations about writing with anyone interested. Publication is surprisingly mystifying. I feel completely alive when I am writing and miss it when I’m not.
Some Questions from Primary School Students
What sort of pets do you have?
Two cats: Biggles and Caspion.
What is your favourite colour/food/movie/game?
YELLOW! Food: potatoes, I could easily live on potatoes. Movie: Tout les Matins du Monde, Game: Five Hundred (cards)
What is the most fun thing about being an author?
(Laughing at my mistakes!) Reading my poems aloud to people.
How do you make books?
Find someone who is interested in your work.
Where do you go for your holidays?
The Coromandel – paradise on earth!
What was the naughtiest thing you ever did at school?
Pulled the teacher’s hair!! I was five years old.
Some Questions from Secondary School Students
How did you get started?
As soon as I started to think deeply (around age 14). I started to write songs and poems. But I also remember writing stories from about 10 onwards.
What advice would you give an aspiring young writer?
Read a lot. Write a lot. Don’t let anything stop you writing. Is it difficult to make a living writing in New Zealand? Well it’s rare. You decide if it’s difficult.
Maybe we can change this ourselves.
What were you like as a teenager?
Very nervous socially, and yet could sometimes act the clown. I was very thoughtful — I split from my first girlfriend because she didn’t believe in Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament. Almost always depressed. Fortunately I met my future wife when I was seventeen (we are still together) — I had always longed to be married.
Additional ideas and information:
I’ve been interested in many things — writers often are. I have been a very proficient juggler; I play music and enjoy acting. I am practically unembarrassable. I once proved at a debating society meeting that the tiny village I grew up in (called Greenplat) was the centre of the universe! I have run two marathons, but am now getting fat.
