Writer Hera Lindsay Bird burst onto the literary scene with her 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlisted eponymous poetry collection. Bill Manhire, whose latest collection is Some Things to Place in a Coffin, has made a unique contribution to the canon of NZ poetry, and to the literary landscape more generally. With Paris-based NZ poet Andrew Johnston they discuss the development of the country’s poetry practice, and its likely trajectory.