Author(s): Sam Hunt

Poetry

In Backroads, Sam Hunt looks back on the life that has seen him become one of  New Zealand's best-loved poets. For over 40 years he has lived off his wits as a full-time poet, always writing, and tirelessly performing through the length and breadth of New Zealand. As a child Sam was surrounded by 'a lot of words, a lot of poems', and from the age of eight he knew that he wanted to live the life of a poet. Backroads charts these childhood years when he was first enthralled by poems; covers his seminal early relationships with other New Zealand poets including Alistair Te Ariki Campbell and James K. Baxter; reflects on subjects such as inspiration and its unwelcome antagonist, drying up; and recounts his early publishing ventures, the decades of performing, and much more. Heavily illustrated with photographs and other material, and supported by numerous poems, both from Sam and other poets he admires, Backroads offers a rare and fascinating insight into this remarkable life.