Geoff Cochrane
Photo: Grant Maiden Photography
Geoff Cochrane (1951–2022) was a poet and fiction writer who was born in Wellington and lived there almost all his life. His last poetry collection was Chosen (2020), and in 2023 his Selected Poems was published. Other late collections include The Black and the White (2019) and RedEdits (2017). In 2014 Geoff was the recipient of an Arts Foundation Laureate Award, presented as part of the 2014 Westpac New Zealand Arts Awards. In 2009 he was awarded the Janet Frame Prize for Poetry and in 2010 the inaugural Nigel Cox Unity Books Award. Geoff published several highly regarded collections of poetry, including Aztec Noon: Poems 1976–1992, Into India, Acetylene, Vanilla Wine and Hypnic Jerks, and the novels Tin Nimbus, named a 1996 Commonwealth Best First Book Prize regional finalist, and Blood. His poems regularly appeared in the annual anthology Best New Zealand Poems, and his work is widely anthologised.