The Commonplace Book

Elizabeth Smither was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand on September 15, 1941. She is poet, novelist, and short story writer. Her collections of poems include The Commonplace Book, The Lark Quartet, A Pattern of Marching, Here Come the Clouds, Casanova's Ankle, Professor Musgrove's Canary, The Tudor Style: Poems New and Selected, and The Year of the Adverbs. Her novels include First Blood and Brother-love Sister-love. Her collections of short stories include Nights at the Embassy and Mr. Fish. She also wrote a children's book entitled Tug Brothers and a collection of her journals entitled The Journal Box. She has received numerous awards including the 2012 Landfall Essay Prize, the Freda Buckland Award, the Prime Ministers Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry, the Lilian Ida Smith Award, and the 2016 Sarah Broom Poetry Prize. She is a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. In 2018 Sarah also won the Volume Ockhameter award in the Poetry category with her title Night Horse.

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