Bill Manhire

Guest writer

Bill Manhire is the founder of the International Institute of Modern Letters writing programme at Victoria University of Wellington. His most recent books are Some Things to Place in a Coffin (VUP, 2017), Tell Me My Name (VUP, 2017; riddles set to music by Norman Meehan and sung by Hannah Griffin), and Wow (VUP, 2020). Bill was born in Invercargill in 1946.

Photo: Auckland War Memorial Museum

Poem for Anzac Day: ‘My World War I Poem’ by Bill Manhire

A poem from Bill Manhire's 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.

By Bill Manhire | 25th April, 2024

Photo: Getty Images

Missing persons: How poets are erased in the world of classical music

If the words matter so little to composers or performers that they can’t be bothered naming the writer, why don’t they just settle for humming the melody?

By Bill Manhire | 11th December, 2020

Mt Erebus, Antarctica (Photo: Getty Images)

The Thursday Poem: Erebus Voices by Bill Manhire

On the 40th anniversary of the Erebus disaster, a poem by Bill Manhire.

By Bill Manhire | 28th November, 2019

Photo: Auckland War Memorial Museum

‘My World War I Poem’ by Bill Manhire

By Bill Manhire | 25th April, 2019

The Friday Poem: ‘Thread’ by Bill Manhire

The Friday Poem: ‘Thread’ by Bill Manhire

New verse by Wellington writer Bill Manhire.

By Bill Manhire | 29th September, 2017

The Friday Poem: ‘Last words’ by Bill Manhire

The Friday Poem: ‘Last words’ by Bill Manhire

New verse - he wrote it on Wednesday, actually - by Wellington writer Bill Manhire.

By Bill Manhire | 23rd June, 2017

With a ceegar in Cuba (Image: Supplied)

The Friday Poets: Bill Manhire interviews the greatest New Zealand poet no one has ever heard of

Who the hell is John Gallas when he's at home? And is he ever at home? Bill Manhire talks to the elusive, much-travelled New Zealand poet.

By Bill Manhire | 28th April, 2017

Photo: Auckland War Memorial Museum

Poem for Anzac Day: ‘My World War I Poem’ by Bill Manhire

New verse by Wellington writer Bill Manhire.

By Bill Manhire | 25th April, 2017

Books: The Year of Bill Manhire

Books: The Year of Bill Manhire

All week this week we feature a memoir of 2015 by a writer of distinction. Our ninth and penultimate memoirist: Wellington writer Bill Manhire, who published a pamphlet and a greatest prose hits to vast acclaim.

By Bill Manhire | 18th December, 2015

Poetry for the soul

Books: The Friday Poem – ‘My Early Life’ by Bill Manhire

'My Early Life' – a poem by Wellington-based poet Bill Manhire.

By Bill Manhire | 18th September, 2015