Deep Colour, by acclaimed poet Diana Bridge, is a fiercely sensory and meticulously crafted collection. These prismatic poems, including some exquisite English translations of fifth-century classical Chinese poetry, respond with graceful precision to the immediate physical world, and meditate on time, beauty and the nature of being.
Deep Colour is the eighth collection by award-winning Wellington-based poet Diana Bridge. It follows Two or More Islands (Otago University Press, 2019). Bridges many accolades include the 2010 Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for Poetry, the 2014 Landfall Essay Competition prize and the 2015 Sarah Broom Poetry Prize. The chief judge, Irish poet Vona Groarke, described her work as possibly amongst the best being written anywhere right now. The same year, Bridge was the first New Zealander since Janet Frame to take up a residency at the Writers and Artists Colony at Yaddo in upstate New York. In the Supplementary Garden: New and selected poems (Cold Hub Press, 2016) was longlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry in the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Bridge has studied Chinese language, literature and art history and holds a PhD in Chinese poetry from the Australian National University.