Kevin Mark Ireland (born 18 July 1933) is a New Zealand poet, short story writer, novelist and librettist.
Born in Auckland, Ireland has lived in England for 25 years, although he has consistently identified himself as a New Zealand poet. He worked for The Times for 20 years. He was writer-in-residence at Canterbury University in 1986, the Grimshaw-Sargeson Fellowship in 1987, the University of Auckland's writing fellow in 1989, assistant editor of Quote Unquote, and president of PEN, 1990–91.
He married Pheobe Caroline Dalwood; they have two sons. He lives in Devonport, New Zealand.
1979 New Zealand Book Award for Poetry for Literary Cartoons1990 New Zealand MedalOBE for services to literature.2004 Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement"Railway Jokes", Sport 8 (Autumn 1992)"Face to Face: Twenty-Four Poems" (1963)"Educating the Body" (1967)"A Letter from Amsterdam" (1972)"Orchids, Hummingbirds and Other Poems" (1974)"A Grammar of Dreams" (1975)"Literary Cartoons" (1977)"The Dangers of Art: Poems 1975–80" (1980)"Practice Night in the Drill Hall: Poems" (1984)"The Year of the Comet: Twenty-Six 1986 Sonnets" (1986)"Selected Poems" (1987)"Tiberius at the Beehive" (1990)Anzac Day: Selected Poems. Hazard Press. 1997. ISBN 978-1-877161-11-7. Fourteen reasons for writing: new poems. Hazard Press. 2001. ISBN 978-1-877270-08-6. Walking the land. Hazard Press. 2003. ISBN 978-1-877270-52-9. How to Catch a Fish. Awa Press. 2005. ISBN 9780958253864. How to Survive the Morning. Cape Catley. 2008. ISBN 9781877340178. Dreamy Days and Nothing Done. Steele Roberts Aotearoa. 2012. ISBN 978-1-877577-69-7. Selected Poems 1963-2013. Steele Roberts Aotearoa. 2013. ISBN 978-1-927242-16-2. Sleeping With the Angels. Penguin Books. 1995. ISBN 978-0-14-024497-7. Blowing My Top. Penguin Books. 1996. ISBN 978-0-14-025645-1. The New Zealand Collection: A Celebration of the New Zealand Novel (1990)"Kevin Ireland on Frank Sargeson", Quote Unquote, November 1995, Issue FourIslands 28 (1980)One of the Boys? (1988)Skinning a Fish (1994)Under the bridge and over the moon. Vintage. 1998. ISBN 978-1-86941-363-7. Backwards to forwards: a memoir. Vintage. 2002. ISBN 978-1-86941-499-3. Jenny Bornholdt, Gregory O'Brien, Mark Williams, eds. (1997). An anthology of New Zealand poetry in English. Oxford University Press New Zealand. ISBN 978-0-19-558338-0. CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)