Brian Turner (born 1944 in Dunedin) is a New Zealandpoet. He played hockey for New Zealand in the 1960s; senior cricket in Dunedin and Wellington; and was a veteran road cyclist of note. His mountaineering experience includes an ascent of a number of major peaks including Aoraki/Mount Cook.
His writing includes columns and reviews for daily and weekly newspapers, articles, given radio talks, and written scripts for TV programmes. His publications include cricket books with his brother Glenn Turner, the former NZ cricket captain, essays, books on fishing, the high country, and eight collections of poetry. His other brother is golfer Greg Turner.
Turner now (2008) lives in Oturehua, a town of 30-40 people in the Maniototo region of Central Otago. He moved there in late 1999. 1.
Awards and recognition
Turner's first collection of poetry "Ladders of Rain" was joint winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize; a later book, Beyond, won the 1993 NZ Book Award for Poetry. Turner was Robert Burns Fellow at the University of Otago in 1984. He was awarded a Scholarship in Letters in 1994, and was Writer in Residence at the University of Canterbury in 1997. He won the NZ Journalists Union Dulux Award for Sport Writing in 1975.
