NZ poet Keith sings high praise for CQU’s Master of Letters
By Greg Chapman
New Zealand poet Keith Westwater is not only proud to adopt the title of ‘Master of Letters’ – he’s honoured to have obtained the degree from CQUniversity.
The 78-year-old has spoken of his post-graduate studies at CQU and shone a light on his latest poetry collection, Sing to Me of Home, which contains several works written during the period.
Eager to progress his author journey, Keith said he chose CQU as in 2009, he couldn’t find any Master of Letters post-graduate online offerings in his home country.
“The totally online nature of the study appealed to me, as I was not at that time able to take time off work to attend classes in person…I also really liked the name of the degree - Master of Letters,” he said.
“I was at a point in my writing where I had had poems accepted for publication in journals in New Zealand and Australia and I had self-published a chapbook. The Master of Letters course enabled me to put together a portfolio of poems that were rigorously worked through.
“(The) constructive online interactions with my CQU tutors are what I remember most about my studies. I found the whole experience to be one that engaged rather than stressed me.”
He said he subsequently used the portfolio gathered during the Master of Letters as the basis for his first full-length book, Tongues of Ash, that was published by Brisbane-based publisher, Interactive Press in 2011 and received the publisher’s 2011 Best First Book award.
Sing to Me of Home contains several poems Keith penned during his studies, including ‘The West Winds Gang is Back’, which was awarded first place in the International Tertiary Student Poetry section of the 2009 Australian Bauhinia Literary Awards and 'Town statue talk’, which was awarded a ‘highly commended’ in the same competition.
“Some of the other early poems in the collection were also written during this time – the book is chronologically sectioned, so readers can identify when poems were given the light of day,” Keith explained.
“I hope the book is a pleasurable and provocative read, blessed with smiles, chortles of recognition or personal reactions of appreciation.
“Although the book is the third in a trilogy, the reader does not need to have read the first two titles before embarking on this one. There is a lot of information in the book's preface, foreword and notes that will answer most questions a reader might have about the previous titles.”
With a Master of Letters under his belt and Sing to Me of Home being his sixth published book, Keith said he was looking forward to a “nice lie down”.
