Brian Turner

Brian Lindsay Turner ONZM (4 March 1944 – 5 February 2025) was a New Zealand poet, author, environmental campaigner and field hockey player. He was New Zealand Poet Laureate between 2003 and 2005.

Turner was born in Dunedin on 4 March 1944. He played hockey for New Zealand in the 1960s and was a senior cricketer and veteran road cyclist of note. His mountaineering experience included ascending a number of major peaks including Aoraki / Mount Cook.

In 1978, Turner was one of the founders of the South Island Independence Movement.

His writing included columns and reviews for daily and weekly newspapers, articles, given radio talks, and written scripts for TV programmes. His publications included cricket books with his brother Glenn Turner, the former NZ cricket captain, essays, books on fishing, the high country, and many collections of poetry. His other brother was golfer Greg Turner.

In late 1999, Turner moved to Oturehua, a town of about 40 people in the Maniototo region of Central Otago. He died in Wānaka on 5 February 2025, at the age of 80.

• 1979 – Commonwealth Poetry Prize
• 1984 - Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago
• 1985 – J.C. Reid Memorial Prize
• 1993 – Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry
• 1997 – appointed Canterbury Writer in Residence
• 2003 – appointed Te Mata Estate New Zealand Poet Laureate for two years
• 2009 – Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry
• 2010 – Poetry Award for Just This at the New Zealand Post Book Awards
• 2020 – appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature and poetry, in the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours