Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance is a 2-CD set of 27 classic New Zealand poets, from Fairburn to Brian Turner, reading their own work. The CDs are accompanied by a book of the texts of the poems reproducing them exactly as read, as well as brief biographies of and bibliographies for each poet. The poets are arranged chronologically by date of birth and each reads for about five minutes (2-5 poems) in recordings made in 1974 and/or 2004. The poets include the leading voices of New Zealand poetry, Mason, Curnow, Glover, Baxter, Edmond, Tuwhare, Frame, Campbell, Smither, Turner, Stead, and were chosen for the quality and significance of their work and for their commitment to voice and performance as an integral part of their poetry. The text has been edited by Jack Ross. The poems were selected by Jack Ross and Jan Kemp from recordings held in the Waiata Recordings Archive (1974), collected and edited by Jonathan Lamb, Jan Kemp and Alan Smythe, and the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive (2004) and all recordings have been cleaned and remastered for CD by Wayne Laird of Atoll Ltd.