"This ancient poetic theme--how to live in order to live beyond life--runs throughout this massive book, unifying the staggering profusion of forms and contents and linguistic registers." --Justin Clemens, the "Australian", on "Collected Poems"

C. K. Stead was born in Auckland in 1932. From the late 1950s, he began to earn an international reputation as a poet and literary critic and, later, as a novelist. He has published more than 40 books and received numerous prizes and honours recognising his contribution to New Zealand literature, including in 2009 the Prime Minister’s Award for Fiction and the Montana New Zealand Book Award (Reference and Anthology) for his Collected Poems , and in 2010 the Sunday Times /EFG Private Bank Award for the short story, and the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine. He received our highest award, the Order of New Zealand, in 2007.