Riddell, Elizabeth (1907-1998), was a New Zealand poet who had a long career as a journalist before publishing her first collection of poems, Forbears, in 1961. Her poetry has been described as “controlled, spare, frequently witty, and lightly lyrical” as well as “serene and unhurried.” Riddell’s Selected Poems (1992) won several Australian literary awards.
Elizabeth Richmond Riddell was born on March 21, 1907, in Napier, New Zealand. Riddell worked for many years in Australia, Europe, and the United States as a feature writer and war correspondent. Following a poetically unproductive interval in the late 1960’s and the 1970’s, she began again to write and published the collections Occasions of Birds (1987) and From the Midnight Courtyard (1989). She died on July 3, 1998.
