Rachel Bush

Rachel Bush (26 December 1941 — 23 March 2016) was a New Zealand poet and teacher. Her work was widely published in books, anthologies and literary magazines.

Rachel Bush
Born(1941-12-26)26 December 1941
Christchurch, New Zealand
Died23 March 2016(2016-03-23) (aged 74)
Nelson, New Zealand
OccupationWriter
SpouseRichard Nunns

Biography

Bush was born in 1941 in Christchurch[1] and grew up in Hāwera.[2] She taught English at Nelson College for Girls until 2003.[2][3]

She was a member of the first MA course in creative writing run by Bill Manhire at Victoria University of Wellington in 1996[3][4] and her first book of poetry, The Hungry Woman, was based on work written during that course.[2] Her work was published in Best New Zealand Poems[5][6] and in 4th Floor Literary Journal[7] as well as on online poetry blogs[8] and in journals including Sport, Landfall, Turbine[9] and Faber's Introduction.[3]

In 2004, she was poet in residence at Wellington Hospital as part of the Poets in Workplaces Scheme.[10] The resulting poems were published as a booklet by the Wai-te-ata Press in 2006, accompanied by photographs taken in the Neonatal Unit by Alan Knowles.[11] One of her poems, "Cicadas", was set to music by Gillian Whitehead, having been commissioned by harpist Helen Webby (with funding from Creative New Zealand).[12][13][14]

Bush was married to musician Richard Nunns and had two daughters and five grandchildren.[4] She died on 23 March 2016, a month before the publication of Thought Horses, although a copy of the book was ready in time for her to see it.[15][16][17] Thought Horses was posthumously longlisted for the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.[18]

Bibliography 
  • The Hungry Woman (Victoria University Press, 1997)
  • The Unfortunate Singer (Victoria University Press, 2002)[19]
  • All patients report here, with photos by Alan Knowles (Wai-te-ata Press, 2006)
  • Nice Pretty Things (Victoria University Press, 2011)[20][21][22][23]            
  • Thought Horses (Victoria University Press, 2016)[1][24][25]   

See also

References
  1. Green, Paula (24 May 2016). "Review: Thought Horses, Rachel Bush". Stuff. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  2. Arnold, Naomi (14 November 2011). "Not such pretty studies in actions and emotion". Stuff. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  3. "Bush, Rachel". Read NZ Te Pou Muramura. January 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  4. Wrightson, Louise (April 2016). "Louise Wrightson farewells Rachel Bush". NZ Poetry Shelf. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  5. Bush, Rachel (2002). "The Strong Mothers". Best New Zealand Poems. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  6. Bush, Rachel (2016). "All my feelings would have been of common things". Best New Zealand Poems. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  7. "Contributors 2014". 4th Floor Literary Journal. 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  8. Bush, Rachel (22 May 2012). "Kiss". Tuesday Poem. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  9. Bush, Rachel (2010). "Sing Them". Turbine Kapohau. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  10. Ritchie, Lorraine (31 October 2016). "Nurses and poetry". Corpus. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  11. Holmes, John (6 June 2016). "Ink under the doctor's fingernails". Corpus. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  12. "Cicadas for soprano and harp". SOUNZ. 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  13. "Gillian Whitehead: Cicadas; Text: Rachel Bush". Helen Webby. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  14. McKinlay, Helen (16 May 2016). "Tuesday Poem – Cicadas by Rachel Bush – In her memory". Gurglewords. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  15. "Rachel Bush". The Spinoff. 24 March 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  16. Green, Paula (24 March 2016). "Farewell Rachel Bush, beloved poet". NZ Poetry Shelf. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  17. "Thought Horses – Rachel Bush". NZSA The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa. 19 April 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  18. "2017 Awards Longlist". NZ Book Awards. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  19. Bieder, Penelope (3 November 2002). "Rachel Bush: The Unfortunate Singer". NZ herald. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  20. Wyatt, Hamesh (5 November 2011). "Poetry". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  21. Neale, Emma (22 March 2012). "Nice Pretty Things by Rachel Bush, This City by Jennifer Compton, The Same as Yes by Joan Fleming and Shift by Rhian Gallagher review". New Zealand Listener. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  22. Barnett, Sarah Jane (23 August 2017). "Five poetry collections you've never read (or should again)". The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  23. Fell, Cliff (1 May 2012). "Particular Tongues". Landfall Review Online. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  24. "Poetry with Gregory O'Brien: Rachel Bush and Michael Jackson". RNZ. 16 July 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  25. Macassey, Olivia (August 2016). "Rachel Bush - Thought Horses". takahē magazine.
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