Erik Kennedy is the author of the poetry collections Sick Power Trip (2025), Another Beautiful Day Indoors (2022), and There's No Place Like the Internet in Springtime (2018), all with Te Herenga Waka University Press, and he co-edited No Other Place to Stand, a book of climate change poetry from Aotearoa and the Pacific (Auckland University Press, 2022). Originally from New Jersey, he lives in Ōtautahi Christchurch.
Kennedy comments: 'I have written a Christmas poem every year since 2015. I believe that sensations are heightened at the time of the year's turning. These poems have covered a lot of emotional ground: whimsy, nostalgia, naive joy, regret, disgust with consumerism, melancholy. They are all both autobiographical and fictional—the famous cop-out used by poets. "Holiday Edition" seems almost hostile to Christmas itself—or even celebration—which would be a bad place to be in if it was how I felt. In the poem's defence, I think there is something likeable and relatable about how much of it takes place while walking. Many problems are only understood while walking, and understanding is a vital first step.'
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