Jenny Bornholdt

Jennifer Mary Bornholdt (born 1 November 1960) is a New Zealand poet and anthologist. She was New Zealand's Poet Laureate in 2005–07.

Early life Born in Lower Hutt, Bornholdt received a bachelor's degree in English Literature and a Diploma in Journalism. She studied poetry with Bill Manhire at Victoria University of Wellington in 1984.

Career She is co-editor of My Heart Goes Swimming: New Zealand Love Poems and the Oxford Anthology of New Zealand Poetry in English, which won the Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry in 1997. In addition, Bornholdt won the 2002 Meridian Energy Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, was a recipient of one of the 2003 Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Awards, and was named the fifth Te Mata Estate New Zealand Poet Laureate in 2005. Her poems were selected for the Best New Zealand Poems series in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005.

In the 2014 New Year Honours, Bornholdt was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services as a poet.

In 2023 Te Herenga Waka University Press published A Garden is a Long Time by Bornholdt and Annemarie Hope-Cross.

Personal life

She lives in Wellington, and is married to poet Gregory O'Brien.

Books

Poetry Bornholdt's poetry has been published in a number of volumes: 1988: This Big Face 1989: Moving House 1991: Waiting Shelter 1995: How We Met 1997: Miss New Zealand: Selected Poems 2000: These Days 2003: Summer

Children's books 2013: A Book is A Book illustrated by Sarah Wilkins 2017: The Longest Breakfast illustrated by Sarah Wilkins

Editor Co-editor, with Gregory O'Brien, My Heart Goes Swimming: New Zealand Love Poems, Random House New Zealand (2000) , Co-editor Oxford Anthology of New Zealand Poetry in English