Michael O'Leary

Michael O’Leary is a poet, novelist, publisher, performer and bookshop proprietor. He writes in both English and Māori; and his influences are both inspired by Māori and Polynesian aspects of living in Aotearoa New Zealand as well as his Irish Catholic heritage on his father’s and his mother’s side. Born in Auckland in the year of the Tiger 1950, he was educated at the universities of Auckland, Otago (Dunedin), and Victoria University (Wellington) where he completed his MA and PhD theses. His Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop imprint (inspired by Andy Warhol’s ‘Factory’, the Beatles’ Apple label, and John and Yoko’s ‘Plastic Ono Band’), which he founded in 1984, has published some of his own prolific output, as well as many other New Zealand writers. Michael O’Leary is a trustee for the Poetry Archive of New Zealand Aotearoa (PANZA), a charitable trust dedicated to archiving, collecting and promoting New Zealand poetry.

He now lives in Paekakariki, north of Wellington. Website: http://michaeloleary.wordpress.com

List of Publications

Poetry

Flipside to the Ballad of John and Yoko
Surrogate Children (with Sandra Bell/Brian Hare)
Ten Sonnets, Myths and Legends of Love
Undiscovered Voyage (with Litia F. Alaelua)
Livin' ina Aucklan' (with illustration by John Pule)
Before and After
Shake Speer's Faith
Con Art: Selected Poems
Ka Atu I Koopua - Out of the Deep
He Waiatanui kia Aroha
T.A.B. Ula Rasa
Toku Tinihanga (Self Deception) (HeadworX Publishing, 2003)
Make Love and War (HeadworX Publishing, 2005)
Mahones: Anthology - Four Poets, with Bill Dacker, Mark Pirie and Iain Sharp (Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 2005)
Sounds of Sonnets (HeadworX Publishing, 2006)
Paneta Street (HeadworX Publishing, 2008)
Livin' ina Aucklan' (new edition ESAW, 2011)
Main Trunk Lines: Collected Railway Poems (HeadworX Publishing, 2015)
Collected Poems 1981-2016 (HeadworX Publishing, 2017)
Family&Friends&Others (ESAW, 2018)
The Ballad of the Triple Track (HeadworX, 2022)

Fiction

Straight
Out of It
The Irish Annals of New Zealand
Noa/Nothing I
Unlevel Crossings
Straight (new edition, ESAW, 2007)
Magic Alex's Revenge (ESAW, 2008)
Out of It (new edition HeadworX, 2012)
Apocrypha Scripta (ESAW, 2020)

As Editor

Wrapper
JAAM 21 (JAAM in Association with HeadworX Publishers and ESAW, 2004)

Non-fiction

Gone West: Waikumete Cemetery
Grafton Cemetery
Paekakariki: A Short History

Autobiography

Die-Bibel

Literary Criticism

It's All in the Mind You Know
Alternative Small Press Publishing in New Zealand (Steele Roberts, 2007)
Wednesday's Women

CDs

Toku Tinihanga
Fences Fall
Paneta Street Livin' ina Aucklan'

Art Books

Covers (ESAW, 2021)