Edmond, Lauris Dorothy Biography 1992

EDMOND, Lauris Dorothy nee Scott
Poet and Writer.
Born Dannevirke 2 April 1924. Married 1945 Trevor Edmond (d); six children – Virginia Ann (b […]), Frances Elizabeth (b […]), Martin John (b […]), Rachel Mary (d 1975), Stephanie Jane (b […]), Katherine Lindsay (b […]).
Educated Napier Girls’ High School; Wellington Teachers’ College – Teaching Certificate 1943; Speech Clinic, Christchurch Normal School – Dip 1944; Waikato University 1966-68 – Bachelor of Arts 1968; Victoria University of Wellington 1971-72 – Master of Arts (1st class honours) 1972; Massey University 1963-65 – honorary Doctor of Literature 1988.
Formerly part-time teacher of secondary school English and French, currently part-time regional tutor Massey University English Department.
Past president PEN, member Indecent Publications Tribunal 1973-79; member Board of Stout Research Centre for NZ History, Life and Culture, Victoria University of Wellington.
Won PEN Best First Book Award 1975, went on to win many others including Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship 1981 and Commonwealth Poetry Prize 1985.
Publications include poetry In Middle Air (Pegasus Press, 1975), The Pear Tree and Other Poems (Pegasus Press, 1977), Wellington Letter (Mallinson Rendel, 1980), Seven (Waysgoose Press, 1980), Salt From the North (Oxford University Press and Bloodaxe Books, 1986), Summer Near the Arctic Circle (Oxford University Press, 1988); numerous short stories; novel High Country Weather (Allen and Unwin/Port Nicholson Press, 1984); The Mountain (a cycle of four solo voice plays for radio) 1981, 1986; Between Night and Morning (stage play for solo performance) 1981; words for cantata The Call of the River commissioned by Lower Hutt Civic Authority and performed by the Orpheus Choir 1991; edited Selected Letters of A.R.D. Fairburn (Oxford University Press, 1981) and others; two volumes of autobiography Hot October (Allen and Unwin, 1989), Bonfires in the Rain (Allen and Unwin, 1991).
Awarded OBE 1986.
Leisure activities include music.
Address 22 Grass Street, Oriental Bay, Wellington.