Soundings
Soundings is another landmark in the development of an important and widely read New Zealand poet. This collection continues and deepens the themes of homeland and loss, colonisation and displacement that have long been central to McQueen’s work.
She writes as a descendant of both the colonised – on remote Scottish islands – and the colonisers, as seen in her exploration of Richard Grenville’s handling of the colony at Roanoke in Virginia. Her writing also engages with the history and present realities of Māori in southern New Zealand.
Cilla McQueen
Cilla McQueen MNZM is a poet, teacher and artist, and a three-time winner of the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry. She received an honorary doctorate in literature from the University of Otago in 2008 and was New Zealand Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2011. In 2010 she received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement (Poetry). In 2020 she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services as a poet. Cilla lives in Bluff, at the southern tip of New Zealand’s South Island.
More About Cilla McQueen
Fire-Penny 
A Wind Harp 
Axis 
Markings 
Poeta 
The Radio Room 
In a Slant Light 
Edwin’s Egg and Other Poetic Novellas