Rachel Bush

Rachel Bush (26 December 1941 — 23 March 2016) was a New Zealand poet and teacher. Her work was widely published in books, anthologies and literary magazines.

Rachel Bush
Born	(1941-12-26)26 December 1941 Christchurch, New Zealand
Died	23 March 2016(2016-03-23) (aged 74) Nelson, New Zealand
Occupation	Writer
Spouse	Richard Nunns

Biography

Bush was born in 1941 in Christchurch^[1] and grew up in Hāwera.^[2] She taught English at Nelson College for Girls until 2003.^[2][3]

She was a member of the first MA course in creative writing run by Bill Manhire at Victoria University of Wellington in 1996^[3][4] and her first book of poetry, The Hungry Woman, was based on work written during that course.^[2] Her work was published in Best New Zealand Poems^[5][6] and in 4th Floor Literary Journal^[7] as well as on online poetry blogs^[8] and in journals including Sport, Landfall, Turbine^[9] and Faber's Introduction.^[3]

In 2004, she was poet in residence at Wellington Hospital as part of the Poets in Workplaces Scheme.^[10] The resulting poems were published as a booklet by the Wai-te-ata Press in 2006, accompanied by photographs taken in the Neonatal Unit by Alan Knowles.^[11] One of her poems, "Cicadas", was set to music by Gillian Whitehead, having been commissioned by harpist Helen Webby (with funding from Creative New Zealand).^[12][13][14]

Bush was married to musician Richard Nunns and had two daughters and five grandchildren.^[4] She died on 23 March 2016, a month before the publication of Thought Horses, although a copy of the book was ready in time for her to see it.^[15][16][17] Thought Horses was posthumously longlisted for the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.^[18]

Bibliography 

• The Hungry Woman (Victoria University Press, 1997)
• The Unfortunate Singer (Victoria University Press, 2002)^[19]
• All patients report here, with photos by Alan Knowles (Wai-te-ata Press, 2006)
• Nice Pretty Things (Victoria University Press, 2011)^{[20][21][22][23]}            
• Thought Horses (Victoria University Press, 2016)^[1][24][25]   

See also

• List of New Zealand poets