Sam Hunt remains unique, to date, among New Zealand poets, in that he has sustained nearly an entire career as an itinerant performance poet, writing a large corpus of poems mainly for performance by himself. He has at certain times been joined on tour by Gary McCormick, Hone Tuwhare, or others, but has often travelled and performed solo. Back in 1998, Paul Millar wrote of him, “Virtually single-handedly, Hunt has created a broad general audience for poetry; and if it was up to the crowds who flock to hear him on stage and the school pupils he has galvanised into enjoying verse, he would be the country’s poet laureate” (Millar 249). The honours and awards which he has received have included, in 1975, a Robert Burns Fellowship at Otago University in Dunedin; in 1985, the Queen’s…
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Citation: Ross, John C.. "Sam Hunt". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 September 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2265, accessed 19 April 2024.]
