Ruth Dallas, one of New Zealand’s most distinguished and widely read poets, had a deep connection to the southern South Island. This shaped her reputation as a regional poet, but her work was also strongly influenced by Asian poetry and thought, and by an appreciation of poetry’s links with song. Like other mid-twentieth century writers and artists, Dallas felt creative works could help define a New Zealand cultural identity. She advanced this goal through her poems, with their keen sense of history and place, as an editorial assistant on the influential arts and literary journal Landfall, and as a successful children’s author exploring New Zealand history and society. As a child, she had longed to read stories set not indoors in England, but outdoors in New Zealand; as an adult, she wrote them herself.