Burleigh, Lois

IN BRIEF

Lois Burleigh is a poet and children’s writer. Her poems have appeared in literary journals and her collection, Inside Outside (1991), is a ‘prison dialogue’ written about the author's visits to Paremoremo Prison. Charles Croot writes of the book, ‘The verse is supple and resonant, the tone is restrained and measured, the attitudes lean towards the positive... guaranteed to make you pause and reflect.’ She has written children’s books and her children’s stories have appeared in educational publications. She has also completed a family history.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Burleigh, Lois (1934 - ) is a children's writer and poet whose collection Inside Outside (1991) is a 'prison dialogue', written about the author's visits to Paremoremo Prison.

In The Press Charles Croot writes: 'The verse is supple and resonant, the tone is restrained and measured, the attitudes lean towards the positive... guaranteed to make you pause and reflect.'

Poems have also appeared in Landfall; International Poet 1980; Tu Tangata, Te Kaea; and other magazines.

Lois Burleigh's two books for children are Amiria's Hat (1986), translated into Maori by Arapera Blank and illustrated by Christine Ross; and The Stranger From The Sea (1990), illustrated by Tony Morris. Her writing for children has also appeared in the School Journal (1993) and Leaves (1999).

Leaves is an anthology of writing for intermediate students in the South Pacific. It is published in Fiji by the University of the South Pacifics Institute of Education.

Lois Burleigh has also compiled a history of the Dixon Family in New Zealand - 150 years (1992). Amiria's Hat has been reprinted  with a selection of the illustrations in The Reed Treasury of New Zealand Children's Books (2007).

(Last updated: July 2009)

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