Eggleton, David

FROM THE oxford companion TO new zealand literature

Eggleton, David (1952 -), came to prominence in the 1980s as a performance poet in New Zealand and overseas. While his mesmeric incantations and entranced eclecticism of language are certainly at their best in performance, and while his references often draw on the alternative cultures of his audiences, he has increasingly been recognised as a distinctive voice in the development of a localised New Zealand poetic language.

Ian Wedde, Elizabeth Caffin, Damien Wilkins and others have concurred in praising his energetic crossing of popular culture with the more formal, to produce what Wedde (in the Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse) called 'a confident if erratic blend of vernacular, lyric and high demotic'. Eggleton's skills and insights as one of the country's best literary reviewers also suggest that the sometimes frenetic fertility of his own verbal surfaces is, in fact, more knowingly directed than may appear. He works by accumulating allusion, demanding quick recognition of the resonance of the disparate phrases that flicker in the discontinuities familiar in music videos. By mixing local observation with the violent cacophonies of the modern, he can also bring newness to abiding images of New Zealand: 'Above, rare whales in the deep marine, brilliant silver curls of surf fold over / and pile into drifts of blubber weed bright as molten tungsten gone solar.'

Though often scoring points by mockery, especially at the expense of politicians, plutocrats and militarists, the poems celebrate their own energy as 'running commentaries' rather than pausing to condemn or propose change. 'The poet's mission is to hold the attention of the audience,' Eggleton has said. But as well as promoting poetry as popular entertainment, he has embodied the conflicts and combustions within a vibrant young culture. Part Polynesian, he was born in Auckland, grew up partly in Fiji and dropped out of high school to self-publish poetic broadsheets and begin his performance career. He is now based in Dunedin, reviewing widely. His published volumes are South Pacific Sunrise (1986), After Tokyo (short fiction, 1987), People of the Land (1988) and Empty Orchestra (1995).

He has been included in most anthologies since 1984, both mainstream and avant-garde collections like Michael Morrissey's The New Fiction (1984) and Murray Edmond and Mary Paul's The New Poets (1987). He has published three recordings and texts for collaborations with both modern dance and sculpture.

Awards include PEN Best First Book of Poetry 1987, Robert Burns Fellowship 1990, New Zealand Book Reviewer of the Year 1991 and, uniquely among New Zealand poets, the London Time Out's Street Entertainer of the Year (Poetry) 1985.

Author entry from The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature,
edited by Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie (1998).
 

writers in schools information

Eggleton is able to visit schools outside his region and is happy to talk to intermediate and senior students. He is prepared discuss literature, arts, and culture. He is able to run workshops, by prior arrangement and is happy to do poetry performances for up to 200 students.