COMP CLOSED | Book Giveaway | My American Chair

A remarkable new collection by one of this country’s best-loved poets.

White lies, hip replacements and ballet with a sawhorse. Parisian drycleaners and the brush of the grass in Central Park. In My American Chair, Elizabeth Smither leads us through serendipitous encounters, the uncanny in the ordinary, the intricacies of friendship and ruminations on mortality. Assured, intimate, witty, revealing – this is a poetry collection to treasure from one of our most beloved voices.

When you purchase them you must allow –
five stems, fifteen buds, only two half-
open – for their circumference to come
flouncing, bowing, bending in two days’ time
like fifteen girls who have changed into
white debutante dresses or five women
who have danced all night and come home with the milkman.

— ‘The white lilies open’

ENDORESEMENTS

‘Elizabeth Smither’s world is the people she knows, the places she visits, the animals she encounters. As they appear in her work they take on mysterious, sometimes surreal, qualities. Her imaginative world is charming and enchanted, peculiar, whimsical, and often very funny.’

— C. K. Stead

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth Smither has written six novels, six collections of short stories and eighteen poetry collections. She has twice won the major award for New Zealand poetry and was the 2001–2003 Te Mata Poet Laureate. In 2004, she was awarded an honorary DLitt from the University of Auckland for her contribution to literature and was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. She received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in 2008. Her most recent book, Night Horse (Auckland University Press, 2017), won the 2018 Ockham New Zealand Book Award for Poetry.

ENDORSEMENTS CONT.

‘Highly in uential and widely read, Elizabeth Smither is one of New Zealand’s nest and most signi cant contemporary writers. Her poetry transcends national borders with its exquisite artistry and careful observation of life’s rhythms. My American Chair is a dazzling work, revelling in language while also considering its vulnerabilities. Smither’s poems explore what it means to be moved and even changed by serendipitous encounters.’

— Cassandra Atherton, Deakin University

‘The freshness of Elizabeth’s vision, her altogether metaphorical way of looking at the world, constantly surprises. Then there is the course her poems take, rising into something which hits, or is very like, the sublime. Her work is replete with a humanity that draws the reader in, moves us and stays with us, achieving what the Chinese call “the meaning beyond the words”.’

— Diana Bridge

‘W. H. Auden once de ned poetry as “a game of knowledge, a bringing to consciousness, by naming them, of emotions and their hidden relationships”. This de nition suits Smither’s poetry, too, with its sophistication, its wit and humour, its playfulness, its candour, its tenderness, its exploration through simile and metaphor of the unexpected relations between things.’

— Peter Simpson

Terms and conditions

1. 1. You must be a GrownUps member and receive our newsletter to be eligible to win.
   2. Competition closes on the 29th November 2022, winners will be notified via email by 1st December 2022.
   3. It is your responsibility to ensure you correctly enter a New Zealand postal address where the prize can be couriered. GrownUps will not take responsibility for prizes sent to incorrect addresses.
   4. Winners are drawn at random by the GrownUps administration team.
   5. GrownUps employees and family are not eligible to enter.
   6. By entering the giveaway, you approve for GrownUps to use your name on social media as winner of the competition.
   7. One entry per person.
   8. Prize is non transferrable.
   9. You must reside in New Zealand – the prize will only be posted within New Zealand.
   10. You must be over 50 years of age to enter, check your details are correct in your membership dashboard.