Dates

Dante’s The Divine Comedy is one of the world’s most important works of literature from one of its finest poets, sending Dante and the Roman poet Virgil on a journey to Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Purgatory was imagined as a (painfully slow) path to heaven at the antipodes of Jerusalem, which would position it somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!

Marking the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, 33 New Zealand poets were invited to incorporate a chosen passage from Purgatorio into a contemporary response, now published in More Favourable Waters. Contributors Airini Beautrais, Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod, Vana Manasiadis, Helen Rickerby, Reihana Robinson, Jamie Trower and Bryan Walpert share their work, introduced by the books coeditor (with Timothy Smith) Marco Sonzogni.

Supported by the Embassy of Italy.

$2 per hour to a max of $12 on weekends and a $12 flat rate for weekday evenings at The Civic car park. Find out more

Last updated: 10 March 2021