title: Gregory O'Brien
text: # Gregory O'Brien
  
  Gregory Leo O’Brien MNZM (born 1961) is a New Zealand poet, painter and editor.
  
  ## Life
  
  Born in Matamata in 1961, O'Brien trained as a journalist in Auckland and worked as a newspaper reporter in Northland. He graduated from the University of Auckland.
  
  His work has appeared in Islands, Landfall, Sport, Meanjin and Scripsi. He lives in Wellington.
  
  ## Awards and honours
  
  * 1988 Sargeson Fellowship
  * 1995 Victoria University Writing Fellow
  * 1997 Landfall Essay Competition
  * 1997 Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry
  * 2005 LIANZA Elsie Locke Non-Fiction Award
  * 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Award for Reference and Anthology
  * 2012 Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement
  
  In the 2014 New Year Honours, O'Brien was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the arts.
  
  ## Works
  
  * "Rocks, Te Namu Pa, Taranaki"; "Untitled"; "Beausoleil", "European", Shearsman 59
  * "Printmaking Studio of John Drawbridge, Island Bay, Wellington", Shearsman 67/68
  * "Wet Jacket Arm", Jacket 35, Early 2008
  * Location of the Least Person (opening with the ‘Old Man South Road’ sequence), was published in Auckland in 1987
  * Dunes and Barns (1988)
  * Man with a Child’s Violin (1990)
  * Great Lake (Sydney, 1991)
  * Malachi, a charming verse novella (Adelaide, 1993)
  * Days Beside Water, Auckland in 1993
  * Winter I Was (Victoria University Press, 1999)
  * Afternoon of an Evening Train (Victoria University Press, Wellington, 2005)
  
  ### Novel
  
  * Diesel Mystic (1989),
  
  ### Anthologies
  
  * Vincent O'Sullivan, ed. (1987). An Anthology of twentieth century New Zealand poetry. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-558163-8.
  
  ### Criticism
  
  * "Running Dog The Poetry of Ken Bolton", Sport 16: Autumn 1996
  * After Bathing At Baxter's, Victoria University Press, 2002.
  * News of the Swimmer Reaches Shore (Carcanet Press, Manchester, 2007)
  * A Nest of Singing Birds: 100 Years of the New Zealand School Journal (Learning Media Ltd, Wellington, New Zealand, 2007)
  
  ### Editor
  
  * Jenny Bornholdt; Gregory O'Brien; Mark Williams, eds. (1997). An anthology of New Zealand poetry in English. Oxford University Press New Zealand. ISBN 978-0-19-558338-0.
  