New Zealand Writers

WOOTTON, Sue

These poems glow with heart. They are laid-back, warm and loveable.
Hamish Wyatt, Otago Daily Times, 1 April 2005

Wootton, Sue (1961 – ) is a poet and short fiction writer. Born in Wellington and raised in Wanganui, Wootton trained and worked as a physiotherapist in Dunedin and overseas. She graduated from the University of Otago with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature in 2003.

Her first collection of poetry, Hourglass (Steele Roberts, 2005), received strong critical favour. Reviewing the collection in the Bay of Plenty Times, 1 April 2006, Sue Emms wrote that: ‘Wootton’s style is open and accessible. She writes with humour and insight, is often tender but manages to avoid sentimentality, even with those poems that are in response to the death of a friend. Hourglass contains warm and intelligent writing.’

Wootton’s poetry has been widely published in newspapers, literary journals including The Dominion Post, Otago Daily Times, Landfall, Poetry NZ, NZ Listener and turbine (see link below). Her poetry has also been anthologised in Best New Zealand Poems 2004 (see link below), Under Flagstaff: An Anthology of Dunedin Poetry (University of Otago Press, 2004), and Poetry Pudding (Reed, 2007), a collection of poetry for children.

In 2006, Wootton won both the Poetry Award for ‘Breakfast with Raymond Carver’ and the Fiction Award for ‘Weight’ at the Aoraki Arts Festival. In her judge’s report for Wootton’s winning poem, poet Bernadette Hall commented that: ‘It takes subtle control, linguistic dexterity and a big heart to come up with such stuff.’

Wootton won the Inverawe Poetry Competition 2007 (Tasmania, Australia) for ‘Temporal’.

Sue Wootton lives in Dunedin.

Updated Information

Wootton is the 2008 Robert Burns fellow, and plans to use her tenure to write her third book of poetry and first book of short stories. Past fellows include Janet Frame, Roger Hall, Keri Hulme, James K. Baxter, Maurice Shadbolt, Michael King, Owen Marshall, Ruth Dallas and James Norcliffe.

Wootton's poetry appeared in Turbine in 2007.

Wootton has had her second collection of poetry, Magnetic South (2008) published by Steele Roberts.

Links
Sue Wootton’s poem ‘Countdown’ on Best New Zealand Poems 2004
Two poems: Deep South 2006
Two poems: turbine 2004 and 2006