New Zealand Writers

CAMP, Kate

'...immensely enjoyable, comic but never pointless.' Lydia Wevers

CAMP, Kate (1972- ) is a poet, essayist, and reviewer.

Kate Camp was born in Wellington. She was educated at Victoria University of Wellington where she completed a BA Hons in English.

Camp's first collection of poetry, Unfamiliar Legends of the Stars (VUP, 1998) won the NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry at the 1999 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

In the New Zealand Listener Bill Direen comments, 'Unfamiliar Legends is a first book from a bustling, healthy talent... The poems are unleashed upon us. They may not always be in politically good taste, but they do contain a surprising radicalism and power... One can't help admiring the verve, the adrenalin, the argumentativeness... This is a brave book, which points directly to the next one.'

That second collection, Realia (VUP) was published in 2001. In the NZ Listener Lydia Wevers writes, 'Camp is GenX grown up. The world reflected in her showcase of "real things" is cool, funny, touching, urban, and consumerist — chairs are vinyl, the best gallery at the Tate Modern is the shop, and TV documentaries are about sex. What I like about Camp's poems is their light but not weightless touch — her observations on the world we live in are recognisable, immensely enjoyable, comic but never pointless.'

In 2002 Camp was the Writer in Residence at Waikato University. At the end of that year she published On Kissing (2002) one of twelve titles in the Montana Estates essay series published by Four Winds Press.

Michael King, in the NZ Herald, 'Camp has much of interest to say about the origins of the habit and about its physiology... She writes a particularly engaging and erudite section on the cinematic kiss.'

Camp's poems have appeared in magazines and journals including Heat (Australia), Landfall, New Zealand Books, North and South, NZ Listener, Sport, Takahe, and the online magazine Turbine. She has had poems selected for Best New Zealand Poems in 2001, 2002 and 2003. In 2003 she was short listed for the prestigious $60,000 Prize in Modern Letters.

Camp is also a reviewer, perhaps best known for her monthly segment, 'Kate's Klassics' on Kim Hill's Saturday radio programme.

Kate Camp lives in Wellington.

(LK)

Updated Information

Camp's third collection of poetry, Beauty Sleep, was published by Victoria University Press in 2005. She was shortlisted for the 2006 Prize in Modern Letters.