Nicola Easthope
Nicola Easthope's ancestral roots lie in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, England and Wales. She was born in London, grew up in Wellington and lives with her partner and young daughter on the Kāpiti Coast. Since high school, Nicola has been active in environmental, social justice and peace movements. She worked for Greenpeace Aotearoa for a number of years, and is currently the Kāpiti Enviroschools facilitator. Nicola also spent ten years teaching English, EFL and Social Studies.
In 2005, she won 2nd prize in the Bravado International Poetry Competition, and was a finalist in the 2011 WWF ‘Ocean:Views’ competition.
She is an ocean staircase strider.
She rides clear above shells and crabs.
Gannets lift her thighs high
with fine lines of surf.
She shapes their heads into bottles.
Draws their bills into nibs.
Here comes the perfect page.
In her first book, Leaving my arms free to fly around you, Nicola Easthope’s poems touch on themes of travel, teaching, nature, love and family. Her collection’s structure echoes the life-path of the gannet/tākapu – flying off for many years, finally to return to its birth colony to mate, for life. Nicola first fell in love with gannets as a nine-year old, at Cape Kidnappers. She dreams of writing the way a gannet dives – with spectacular grace, precision and speed while hunting – for tantalizing and satisfying words and images.
The featured painting 'Gannet Ink', by Nicola's good friend Kym Burke, depicts a gannet diving, head morphing into a fountain pen, into a sea of poetry. The underwater lines were selected by the artist from some of Nicola's poems.
Listen to Nicola's October 2011 interview on Radio New Zealand's Sunday Art Show here.
Read more on Nicola's book Leaving my arms free to fly around you.
Nicola also offers an editing and proof-reading service. Contact Nicola on the email address below for more information.
|
|
|
|
