Gallery

Synopsis

‘With the publication of Shoot in 1999, Mark Pirie established himself as one of the most promising of the younger New Zealand poets. Gallery brings together the best of Pirie’s early work from his first five books published in New Zealand.’

Reviews of this Book

‘[Mark Pirie] made me smile. It’s like a photo album of favourite pictures that you can look at over and over – except that when you look at the photo again you can see a new angle almost every time. [Poetry] is Mark Pirie’s verbal camera. And to see the world from a viewpoint other than our own is always fun, especially when it comes from someone with such an intuitive slant and obviously wry sense of humour.’ —NZ Writers’ Web Site

‘Twenty-something Mark Pirie is a prolific writer of competent, very cool poems. He talks of pop stars, poets, self-image, death, sports personalities and socialising in an impish way. He is often lots of fun [and] he mixes it all in a rich, playful way … [Pirie] is in a league way beyond his years.’ —Hamesh Wyatt, Otago Daily Times

‘[Mark Pirie] takes us … into what we might term the psychology of popular culture. By that I mean that these poems subvert standard readings in the same way that some movies and sit-coms subvert standard viewings … and to my knowledge Mark Pirie is the only New Zealand poet who has made this territory his own.’ —John O’Connor, Sudden Valley Press