The University of Waikato has appointed American-born poet Steven Toussaint as its Writer in Residence for 2016.

Steven says he intends to devote the year to completing his third book of poetry and is excited to start 2016 with a 'quiet room, a broad desk and a library card”.

American-born poet Steven Toussaint has been appointed as the University of Waikato's Writer in Residence for 2016. Photo: Supplied

Along with numerous publications in literary journals, Steven also published the chapbook Fiddlehead in 2014, and his first full-length collection of poems The Bellfounder in 2015.

This year Steven also completed his PhD at Victoria University of Wellington's International Institute of Modern Letters.

'I hope to expand upon much of the work I took up during the course of my PhD,” says Steven, 'specifically my studies into musical composition, theory, and history.

'I am deeply interested in what emerges from the collusion of poetry and music, what it suggests about duration – our experience of time passing – and the significance of repetition.”

As part of this work, Steven will dive initially into some of Olivier Messiaen's organ works to see what he can draw from them.

Steven says for him, there's always a great deal of research and sketching before the poems start to come together.

'I also hope to allocate some time to critical writing, specifically on the intersections between poetry, religion and music,” he says.

The Writer in Residence position is open to poets, novelists, short story writers, dramatists and writers of serious non-fiction. It is jointly funded by the University of Waikato and Creative NZ.