Richard Smith

Richard Smith, Writer (libretto and book)

Richard was raised in Wellington and lives with his wife in Porirua. He has worked as a teacher and editor in New Zealand, the UK and Cambodia. In 2015 he was awarded ‘New Zealand’s Most Inspiring Teacher’. Richard’s first foray into songwriting was in partnership with Dave Fuller, resulting in the album Dream of a Land recorded by Peter Woolston. Richard has written songs for bands, churches and schools, including a number of musicals for children, often working in collaboration with tamariki.

His poetry has been published in many New Zealand journals such as Turbine, Takahē and Trout but more recently in Balloons Literary Journal (Hong Kong), London Grip New Poetry, Relief Journal, Ekstasis, and the anthology Now and Then (Landing Press). In 2025 he was runner up for the ‘Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems’.