A New Way of Seeing: Jenny Powell Launches 'Biology Field Trip'

By Ōtepoti He Puna Auaha | Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature | Posted: Monday Aug 10, 2026

The Ōtepoti City of Literature team was proud to collaborate recently with Cold Hub Press and our colleagues at Dunedin Public Libraries for the launch of Biology Field Trip, the latest poetry collection from Ōtepoti’s very own Jenny Powell — writer, performer, teacher, and City of Literature South D Poet Lorikeet.

Nicky Page, Director - Ōtepoti He Puna Auaha Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature gave a warm welcome calling the book ‘a way of seeing the world differently at a time when that couldn't be more meaningful and helpful’, before handing over to Roger Hickin of Cold Hub Press, Jenny's publisher and the evening's MC.

Roger introduced Biology Field Trip as a natural extension of Jenny's previous collection, Meeting Rita — a series of imagined encounters with painter Rita Angus. Where that book dealt in imagination, this one draws on real experience: from sitting with a dying poet friend, to gazing into the eye of a hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin), to confronting a dissected eye in a jar, to standing before the remains of a stranded sperm whale. As Roger put it, the poems ‘look outward to affirm the intricate interconnections between all things’ — fittingly, he called it ‘a truly UNESCO book’, blending the educational, the scientific and the cultural.

Jenny's signature blend of acute observation, imaginative flair and gentle humour was on full display as she read to the room. She spoke warmly of the people and places that shaped the collection. Jenny was joined by friend and fellow poet Kay McKenzie Cooke, her writing partner in the Otago-Southland touring duo ‘J&K Rolling’; and award-winning writer Paddy Richardson, ‘a celebration’ in her own right, generous supporter of New Zealand literature, and someone whose feedback Jenny treasures.

A highlight was Kay's retelling of the story behind one of the collection's poems. In 2024, while the pair took part in the Dan Davin Literary Foundation Poetry Festival, they heard that a 15-metre-long sperm whale had washed up on nearby Oreti Beach. True to form, Jenny wasn't content to leave it to the imagination — so, with driver Robert's help, they set off early the next morning, waded through a stream, and walked a long stretch of beach until the whale finally came into view.

Kay described the encounter as ‘other worldly’, noting the whale's mana despite illegal vandalism, a violation that deeply upset the local marae, her own marae. The pair walked around it in near silence, taking in something ‘too big for words’, before the long walk back. Jenny then read the poem the moment had inspired.

The evening continued with a conversation between Jenny and Paddy. Jenny explained that the collection began with a comment from her son, worrying about whether the world would still be there for his daughter when she grew up — a concern Jenny found was shared widely, and one she felt compelled to respond to as a poet.

The two discussed the collection's subtitle, a new way of seeing, and how a formative experience — witnessing the dissection of an eye — had set Jenny on a path of thinking about optics, perception and attention that runs through the book. Jenny reflected on the influence of the Rita Angus collection in teaching her to notice ‘infinite detail’, a skill she then turned outward onto the natural world.

Jenny also shared some of the personal moments behind the poems: her first-ever sighting of an albatross in flight above Taiaroa Head, a place tied to her father's wartime service; and a close-up chance encounter with a hoiho peering through a fence at the wildlife rescue centre during a school camp. Several poems also draw on her decades of teaching, including exchanges with students whom, she said, have never once refused to help when she's told them she's ‘stuck’.

Asked, in light of her son's worry, whether we are safe, Jenny offered a quietly hopeful answer: that wherever we are, we carry home inside ourselves. She closed the conversation with a reading of the poem ‘A Different Way of Seeing’.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who braved the chill and joined us, and to Roger and Dunedin Public Libraries for helping bring this special evening together.

Watch the full event here: 'Biology Field Trip: a different way of seeing' by Jenny Powell (Cold Hub Press, 2026) Book Launch

Purchase your copy here: Jenny Powell Biology Field Trip | Cold Hub Press

Find this book and over 3000 others in the Dunedin City of Literature Collection at Dunedin Public Libraries.