Brian Turner ONZM
Turner in 2020
4thNew Zealand Poet Laureate
In office 2003–2005
Preceded by	Elizabeth Smither
Succeeded by	Jenny Bornholdt
Personal details
Born	Brian Lindsay Turner (1944-03-04)4 March 1944 Dunedin, New Zealand
Died	5 February 2025(2025-02-05) (aged 80) Wānaka, New Zealand
Relatives	Glenn Turner (brother) Greg Turner (brother) Sukhi Turner (sister-in-law)
Sports career
Country	New Zealand
Sport	Field hockey

Brian Lindsay TurnerONZM (4 March 1944 – 5 February 2025) was a New Zealand poet, author, environmental campaigner andfield hockey player.^[1] He wasNew Zealand Poet Laureate between 2003 and 2005.

Turner was born inDunedin on 4 March 1944.^[2] He playedhockey for New Zealand in the 1960s and was a senior cricketer and veteranroad cyclist of note. Hismountaineering experience included ascending a number of major peaks includingAoraki / Mount Cook.^[3][4]

His writing included columns and reviews for daily and weekly newspapers, articles, given radio talks, and written scripts for TV programmes. His publications included cricket books with his brotherGlenn Turner, the formerNZ cricket captain, essays, books on fishing, the high country, and eight collections of poetry.^{[citation needed]} His other brother was golferGreg Turner.^[4]

In late 1999, Turner moved toOturehua, a town of about 40 people in theManiototo region ofCentral Otago.^[5] He died inWānaka on 5 February 2025, at the age of 80.^[3][6]

• 1979 –Commonwealth Poetry Prize^[7]
• 1985 – J.C. Reid Memorial Prize^[7]
• 1993 –Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry^[8]
• 1997 – appointed Canterbury Writer in Residence^[7]
• 2003 – appointed Te Mata EstateNew Zealand Poet Laureate for two years^[7]
• 2009 –Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry^[9]
• 2010 – Poetry Award forJust This at theNew Zealand Post Book Awards^[7]
• 2020 – appointed anOfficer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature and poetry, in the2020 Queen's Birthday Honours^[10][11]

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(October 2024)

• Ladders of Rain (John McIndoe, 1978)
• Ancestors (John McIndoe, 1981)
• Listening to the River (John McIndoe, 1983)
• Bones (John McIndoe, 1985)
• All That Blue Can Be (John McIndoe, 1989)
• Beyond (John McIndoe, 1992)
• Taking Off (Victoria University Press, 2001)
• Timeless Land (Longacre Press, 2001) – includes paintings byGrahame Sydney and writing byOwen Marshall
• Footfall (Random House, 2005)
• Just This (Victoria University Press, 2009)
• Inside Outside (Victoria University Press, 2011)
• Elemental: Central Otago Poems (Godwit/Random House, 2012)
• Boundaries: People and Places of Central Otago (Penguin Random House, 2015) – also includes essays and interviews
• Night Fishing (Victoria University Press, 2016)

• Somebodies and Nobodies (Random House, 2002)

• Interview with Brian Turner, fromNew Zealand Listener of 5–11 March 2005, Vol 197 no 3382

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