Jessie Mackay was a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

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Her parents were Scottish. She went to Christchurch to train as a teacher, and taught at small rural schools until 1898.
She moved to Dunedin, and worked as a journalist for the Otago Witness.
In 1902, she moved to Christchurch where she lived with her sister Georgina.
In 1906, she was lady editor of the Canterbury Times.

Her papers are held by the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand.
The Jessie Mackay Memorial Award for Verse is given by the PEN New Zealand

International PEN

PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....

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Works

• The Sitter on the Rail and other poems. Christchurch: Simpson and Williams, 1891.
• From the Maori Sea. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1908.
• Land of the Morning. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1909.
• The Bride of the Rivers and other verses. Christchurch: Simpson and Williams, 1926.
• Vigil. Auckland: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1935

Sources

• Macleod, N. F. H. A Voice on the Wind. Wellington: Reed, 1955.
• Margaret Chapman, Jessie Mackay: a woman before her time , Kakahu W.D.F.F., 1997, ISBN 9780473047948