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Otago Daily Times
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- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
‘Enriching' opportunity for Poet Laureate
In his last months as New Zealand's Poet Laureate, Chris Tse has been connecting with fellow laureates and poets in Europe. Back home to talk about his experiences and share his knowledge in Queenstown, Tse talks to Rebecca Fox about his journey. For a long time, poetry has been something Chris Tse did on the side. "A passion for sure, but I never imagined it could become such a big part of my day-to-day life." But being named New Zealand's 13th Poet Laureate in 2022, a role given to a highly regarded poet — previous holders have been Vincent O'Sullivan, Cilla McQueen and David Eggleton — to raise the profile and promote poetry, changed Tse's life. It is an award Tse, author of How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes (winner of the 2016 Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry), HE'S SO MASC and Super Model Minority (a finalist for the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and long-listed at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards), struggled to grasp at the time. "I'm still astonished that I was bestowed with this role and got to follow in the footsteps of poets who have been a huge influence on me." His inauguration as Poet Laureate at Matahiwi Marae, Hawke's Bay, still rates as a top highlight of his time in the role. "It was where I was presented with my tokotoko [ceremonial walking stick] — a very overwhelming and emotional moment." It led to a very busy but "enriching" three years for Tse, who until recently juggled the role with his communications job of 12 years. He left the job to focus on the end of his term as laureate and take up some other opportunities. Most recently, he has represented New Zealand at the 55th Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam and Dichters in de Prinsentuin (Poets in the Prince's Garden) in Groningen. "I've been honoured that being in this role has allowed me to represent New Zealand on a world stage and to promote New Zealand's world-class poets and writers to new international audiences." As the theme at the Poetry International was "Laureates and Legends", Tse got to perform alongside and meet poets from around the world, including the poet laureates Babs Gons, of the Netherlands, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, of Liberia, Simon Armitage, of the United Kingdom, Kwame Dawes, of Jamaica, and Esther Phillips, of Barbados, as well as Somali-British writer and poet Warsan Shire. "I always joke that I'm a theatre kid at heart because I love the thrill of getting on stage and getting that immediate response from the audience. It's my favourite part of being a poet because it goes back to the origins of poetry being a form of oral storytelling and forging connections between people." He also loves hearing other poets perform. "It can give you some new insight into their poetry, even if you have read it dozens of times yourself. There are little things like where they pause or which words they emphasise when they perform that can change how you interpret them." He finds attending festivals gives him a renewed perspective on the importance of New Zealand stories and how interested people are in the country and its writers. "I often go to these festivals thinking no-one is going to be interested in me because I'll be unfamiliar to them, but I'm always pleasantly surprised when I get a full house or have people hanging around afterwards to talk to me or get books signed." Tse has also received commissions to write during his time as laureate for events and other occasions, which has resulted in him writing about topics he never thought he would write about — like soccer. "I've also been thinking and writing a lot about joy — particularly queer and POC [persons of colour] joy, and how we hold on to joy and hope in times of ecological, social and political crisis." During his time as laureate, he has also had the opportunity to travel to the United States as the 2024 fellow of the University of Iowa's International Writing Program Fall Residency and was the 2025 Dutch Foundation for Literature writer in residence. The ability to travel has been wonderful for Tse, but it is the new connections he has made with fellow poets and audiences that have meant the most to him. "I'm so grateful for all the opportunities I've had during my term — I know I'm very lucky to have been in this role at a relatively early stage in my career." Tse's poetry journey began in the last years of high school, as his friends were writing poetry, but he had always loved writing and storytelling in its many forms — scripts, song lyrics and poetry. "It's no surprise to me that I've followed that interest in my adult life." When he discovered he could study creative writing at university alongside "practical" film papers, he grabbed the opportunity. "Knowing that this could be a focus of my university studies really encouraged me to try and write more while I had the chance, because I wasn't sure I'd end up having a career in the arts." His dream job as a child was to be a teacher. "In some ways I've gotten to live out that dream by teaching creative writing workshops and giving presentations to students about poetry." But once he completed his degree, he ended up working in publishing and then in communications — jobs where he has been able to use his writing skills and be creative. However, poetry has always been part of his life. He enjoys the potential it has to let the writer be very loose and experiment with language as well as the constraints of more traditional forms. "Poetry appeals to me because it challenges me to be concise with what I'm trying to describe or convey to the readers." Reading and writing poetry has also become "synonymous with untangling the many strands" of his identity. "It's how I process what's happening in the world and my place in it." His work is inspired by many things — from current events to things that catch his eye or ear, like pop songs or art that remind him of an experience or a feeling he has had. "I guess being a poet has led me to be curious and interested in the connections and relationships between people, objects and ideas." However, it has not been an easy journey. He had been trying to get his work published for a couple of years before a breakthrough at the end of 2005, when he had his first poems published in journals. Getting his first collection published took time, as parts of it were started during his MA in creative writing in 2005. He revised it over the next few years before Auckland University Press picked it up in 2014. "Writing a collection and getting it in front of a publisher is a long game that requires patience and perseverance. For me, it's been a long journey with a lot of failure and rejection, and learning from my mistakes." But he also believes publishing a book is not the "be all and end all" of being a successful poet. "If it is something you want to pursue you should take your time. Looking back, I'm glad it took me a while to have my first book published — I needed the time to grow as a person and develop my craft." Super Model Minority , published shortly before he became laureate, is a book he is very proud of. "It's an honest and fiery book, and I feel I finally landed a poetic vision that is 'me'." But he is really excited about the new poems he has written that he hopes will form part of his next book. "Some of them still deal with difficult subject matter, but I've rediscovered the fun side of writing poems and letting myself be a little more messy and focus less on perfection." Tse also enjoys writing essays and articles and has had a few short stories published, but they take him a lot longer to write. "I write in a very fractured way that suits how I write poetry but perhaps not something long form." It involves lots of notes and ideas jotted down for lines and images that he revisits later, when he is somewhere quiet with very few distractions — his phone is left in another room. "If anything might work in a poem I'm working on or perhaps they might inspire me to start something new — I tend to write in a non-linear fashion so a lot of my process is figuring out how to fill in the blanks between the lines or connect disparate ideas together. It's not the tidiest of processes but it works for me." As being a writer often means spending a lot of time on his own, Tse enjoys connecting with other writers as it can help him work through problems in his work, or they can learn from each other. He has been involved in Freya Daly Sadgrove's Show Ponies, which aims to disrupt expectations of what a poetry performance could look and sound like, and Slow Currents, which enables him to connect with and learn from fellow Asian diaspora writers. "Being part of these two groups has challenged me as a writer and performer, and encouraged me to be more courageous and daring." Tse is looking forward to returning to the South, a region he has only recently begun visiting, this time as a guest of the Arrowtown Creative Art Society and Queenstown Writers Festival. To see An Evening with the Poet Laureate, The Sherwood, Queenstown, August 8, 7.30; Poetry Masterclass with Chris Tse, Te Atamira, Frankton, August 9, 10am-noon.
Otago Daily Times
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Tse the moment with poet laureate
New Zealand Poet Laureate Chris Tse's performing in Queenstown next month. PHOTO: SUPPLIED New Zealand's Poet Laureate will perform in Queenstown for one night only next month. Chris Tse's a Kiwi poet, short-story writer and editor, who was named NZ's 13th Poet Laureate in 2022 — his tenure ends this year. A 2024 fellow of the University of Iowa's International Writing Programme Fall Residency, and a 2025 Dutch Foundation for Literature writer-in-residence, Tse's works explore the questions of identity, including his Chinese heritage and queer identity. He's authored three poetry collections published by Auckland University Press, including How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, which won the 2016 Jessie Mackay Award for best first book of poetry, and Super Model Minority, which was a finalist for the 2023 Lamgda Literary Award for gay poetry and long-listed at the 2023 Ockham NZ Book Awards. Tse's being brought to Queenstown by the Arrowtown Creative Arts Society (ACAS) and Queenstown Writers Festival. ACAS co-chair Kelly Carmichael's thrilled to instigate the collaboration. "I genuinely believe a creative community is a collaborative community, and when arts organisations support each other, we make the whole scene stronger. "Given the spiky times we're living through, it is exciting to have a contemporary poet like Chris Tse in town — someone at the top of their game who is helping to redefine New Zealand poetry." Queenstown Writers Fest chair Tanya Surrey says they're also delighted to help bring Tse to the Whakatipu. "One of our objectives as a trust is to provide opportunities for education andlearning, as well as showcasing a range of voices in contemporary NZ literature." To that end, along with his public performance at Queenstown's Sherwood from 7.30pm on August 8, at which Tse will be joined on stage by local poets, he's also teaching a poetry workshop for local high school students, and a public workshop, at Te Atamira, on August 9, from 10am till noon. Tickets for the 'Poetry Masterclass with Chris Tse' cost $40 from Eventfinda. Tickets for 'An Evening with the Poet Laureate', during which Tse will read selections from his previous collections and poems written during his time as Poet Laureate, focused on capturing and expressing joy, particularly during times of crisis and uncertainty, cost $25 ($20 for ACAS members), also via Eventfinda.
