Robert Sullivan is a member of the Nga Puhi tribe of Northland in New Zealand. He is also of Galway Irish descent.

In 1998 he was the Literary Fellow at the University of Auckland, and in 2001 the Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Hawaii.

He served a term on the UNESCO (New Zealand) Culture Subcommission, and a term on Creative New Zealand’s (the national arts council of New Zealand) Literature Advisory Committee.

He has twice been a finalist in the national New Zealand Book Awards for poetry. Since 1990 he has written four books of poetry published by Auckland University Press (most recently, Captain Cook in the Underworld, which is also a libretto for a composition by John Psathas), a graphic novel illustrated by Chris Slane called Maui: legends of the outcast, and a children’s book Weaving earth and sky: myths and legends of Aotearoa (Random House) - which won both Book of the Year and the Non-Fiction Category in the 2003 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards. His first book, Jazz Waiata, won the PEN (NZ) Best First Book of Poetry award. He has most recently co-edited with Professor Albert Wendt and Reina Whaitiri an anthology of Polynesian poetry in English, Whetu Moana (AUP and UHP, 2003).

Robert also co-edits the online journal Trout: http://www2.auckland.ac.nz/lbr/trout/index.html and is featured at the New Zealand electronic poetry centre:
http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/authors/sullivan/