Solitude, solace, and consolation are among the themes explored in this poetry collection that considers the ways that language, loss, history, and memory are linked together. The centerpieces of this collection are two major poems—"Les Baillessats," a relaxed, sunny poem written for a newborn son; and "The Sunflower," an elegy for a father that is a technically dazzling extended meditation on death, family, and religious faith.
Andrew Johnston is a New Zealand poet, critic and editor. His books of poems include Sol (2007), Birds of Europe (2000), The Open Window (1999), The Sounds (1996) and How to Talk (1993), which won the 1994 New Zealand Book Award for Poetry.
Andrew is the co-editor, with Robyn Marsack, of Twenty Contemporary New Zealand Poets, published in 2009 by Carcanet, UK, and Victoria University Press, New Zealand. He also edited Moonlight: New Zealand Poems on Death and Dying (Random House, 2008). In 2007 he was the J D Stout Research Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington.
Andrew's editing consultancy Language Aid helps UN agencies and other international organisations rewrite their written communications for a wider audience. He is principal editor of the UN's major annual report on the state of education around the world, the Education for All Global Monitoring Report, published by UNESCO, and edits the World Education Blog. From 1999 to 2010 he worked as an editor for the International Herald Tribune, including six years as deputy editor of the opinion pages.
Since 1997 he has lived in France. He is married to Christine Lorre, an English lecturer at Université Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle, and they have three children, Emile (born 2002), Oscar (born 2007) and Louise (born 2010).
Andrew founded The Page, an online digest of the Web's best poems and essays, and edited it from October 2004 until October 2009.
