Bill Sewell – 1981-82

Bill Sewell (1951-2003) lectured in German at Otago University, and was one-time editor for John McIndoe and the Otago University Press. He was also President of the New Zealand Poetry Society, and from 1997 to 2002 he was co-editor of New Zealand Books. One poetry collection arising from his two-year stint as a Burns Fellow was Solo Flight, a series of meditations about the South Canterbury aviator Richard Pearse. Robert Burns, another Dunedin identity, provided another catalyst: 'the pigeons make free with his statue in the Octagon...'.

Bill Sewell, Solo Flight. Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 1982. Private Collection.