Born in
Blenheim, New Zealand, Wedde lived in
East Pakistan and England as a child before returning to New Zealand. He attended
King's College and the
University of Auckland, graduating with an MA in English in 1968. Wedde started publishing poetry in 1966. He travelled in
Jordan and England in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and returned to New Zealand to live in
Port Chalmers in 1972. In 1975 he moved to
Wellington. From 1983 to 1990 Wedde was the art critic for
The Evening Post. He co-edited
The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse with
Harvey McQueen in the mid 1980s, and
The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry with McQueen and
Miriama Evans in 1989. He became the arts project manager at
Te Papa in 1994 where he curated the opening art exhibition Parade that controversially paired McCahon's
Northland Panels with a 1950s refrigerator. A collection of essays,
Making Ends Meet, was published in 2005. Wedde was appointed an
Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the
2010 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to art and literature. In August 2011, Wedde was appointed
New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2011-2013. ==Poetry collections==