Wystan Curnow

Wystan Curnow CNZM (born 1939, Christchurch, New Zealand) is a New Zealand art critic, poet, academic, arts administrator, and independent curator. He is the son of Elizabeth Curnow, a painter and printmaker, and poet Allen Curnow.

Curnow was born in Christchurch in 1939 to Elizabeth and Allen Curnow. He was named after the modernist poet W.H. Auden (Wystan Hugh). His parents' home in the Christchurch suburb of Merivale was a hub for writers, artists, actors, and composers. Curnow was closely associated with Denis Glover's flagship publishing business, Caxton Press, and the group of writers around this project, including Charles Brasch, Walter D'Arcy Cresswell, A. R. D. Fairburn, R.A.K. Mason and Ursula Bethell. Elizabeth Curnow was friends with artists such as Leo Bensemann, Evelyn Page, Douglas MacDiarmid, and Rita Angus.

The Curnow family moved to Auckland's North Shore in 1951, after Allen Curnow was offered a job lecturing in the English Department at the University of Auckland. Curnow studied at Takapuna Grammar, and went on to complete a Masters of Arts in English with first-class honours from Auckland University.

In 1961, Curnow married Susan Matthews, and they have four sons together.

In 1963, Curnow and his family moved to Philadelphia, where Curnow studied at the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Morse Peckham. Curnow studied nineteenth century American literature and literary theory. His PhD thesis was entitled 'Melville's poetry up to 1876' and was completed in 1970. Curnow lectured in the English Department at the University of Rochester between 1967 and 1969, before returning to Auckland in 1970 to take up a lecturing position in the English Department at the University of Auckland, where for a number of years he worked alongside his father.

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