New Zealand Poetry Society Te Hunga Tito Ruri o Aotearoa
Congratulations
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Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle, who brought herself to our attention by having poems selected for our annual anthology, Before the Sirocco, in both open and junior open categories, has had a poem selected for Turbine, the online journal of the International Institute of Modern Letters. Another talented young poet is launched. Other NZPS members with poems included in Turbine are: Johanna Aitchison, Michele Amas, Frankie McMillan, Kathy McVey, Emma Neale, Tim Upperton and Sue Wootton.
Emma Neale is the inaugural recipient of the NZ Society of Authors Janet Frame Memorial Award for Literature.
Based in Dunedin, Emma is a novelist as well as a poet. Her novels include Night Swimming, Double Take and Relative Strangers. Her latest poetry collection, Spark, was published this year by Steele Roberts.
Emma intends to use the award to buy a new computer. She is currently working on her husband's laptop, "which has to be propped up at one corner with a physics textbook, and weighted down on the top corner with another - or it doesn't work - and given, as I explained in my application, that my own PC has died - the news about the award is very, very welcome indeed."
Emma is working on a new poetry collection, as well as rewriting the first draft of a novel.
"I have a huge respect for Janet Frame's work," she comments, "and her ability to 'speak' in so many genres so fluently. She was a brilliant writer, and that increases the sense of privilege it feels to be granted the award."
The biennial award has been established through a generous grant from The Janet Frame Literary Trust and is for $3,000. It may be used for travel or for purchasing computer equipment, as well as to buy time to write. The award is offered to support a mid-career or established author to further their literary career. (NZSA newsletter)
Joanna Preston has won the inaugural Kathleen Grattan Award for a collection of poetry. Judge Fleur Adcock chose Joanna Preston's The Summer King. Joanna will receive $16,000 and have her book published by Otago University Press.
Ginny Sullivan won the Indigo Dreams Press (UK) poetry competition in August 2008, with 'The Long Goodbye'. Great going, Ginny - it's good to see New Zealand Poetry Society members making a mark on the international poetry scene.
Laurice Gilbert's poem 'Island Bay', first published in JAAM 26 (ed Tim Jones), was selected as the 'Wednesday Poem' in the Dominion Post, 26 November 2008.
Helen Lowe is taking off in the literary world with her fantasy writing. Read Graham Beattie's interview with her at http://beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/nz-author-makes-huge-strides-in-us.html This blog is not only influential in NZ, but has 15% of its readership in the US.
Emily Adlam and Pat White were finalists in the Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing. Emily's story 'Five' in the Fiction section, and Pat's work 'The New Dam; Story of an Intervention' in the Non-fiction section.
Sugu Pillay won Second Prize in the Teen Actors Scripts Division of the 2008 Playwrights' Association of New Zealand Competition, for her play 'The Facts'. Andre Surridge achieved Third in the Comedy Division, with 'Waiting for Taniwha'.
Michael Harlow has been awarded the Robert Burns Fellowship for 2009.
Patricia Prime, Auckland, has a group of haiku in Ko, a Japanese journal of haiku in English.
Mary Logan's recently published non-fiction book NORDY, Arnold Nordmeyer, A Political Biography (Steele Roberts) is a biography of the politician. The book was launched by the Prime Minister at Kurow on 12th August 2008, and on 31st August by the MP for Rongotai Annette King, at the Island Bay Presbyterian Church where Nordy was a member for many years
Sue Wootton has a story, 'Virtuoso', in this year's New Zealand Book Council's Six Pack. The Six Pack Competition was launched in 2005 with the first Six Pack published at the inaugural launch of New Zealand Book Month. Since then The Six Pack (2006) and The Six Pack Two (2007) have spent numerous weeks on the NZ Bestsellers list.
Young NZPS member Charlotte Trevella did extremely well in our 2008 International Poetry Competition. As well as winning the Open Junior section for the second year in a row, she also won the Haiku Junior section. On top of that she won Fourth Prize in the Haiku Junior section, and received a Highly Commended in the Open Junior section. Charlotte has a fine literary future ahead of her.
Patron Dame Fiona Kidman has received the 2008 Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship, a fantastic prize of $100,000. This will enable her to write three projects: a collection of short stories and two novellas exploring early writers in New Zealand. The NZPS offers Fiona our heartiest congratulations, and considers it a prize richly deserved.
Catherine Mair received a QSM in the 2008 birthday honours list for 'services to poetry and the community'. Catherine has made a long and generous contribution to the development of haiku and related forms as well as mainstream poetry in New Zealand. Those of you who have seen the Haiku Pathway will recognise that this is a richly deserved honour.
Fleur Adcock OBE has been awarded Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature. Fleur was our Guest Poet in January 2008, and is the daughter of the late Irene Adcock, Founder of The New Zealand Poetry Society.
Tim Jones was one of four New Zealand writers to be long-listed for 2008 The Frank O'Connor Short Story Prize, one of the most prestigious in the short story world, with an annual award of 35,000 euros to an author of a short story collection. Tim's collection is Transported (Random House). The award was won by Jhumpa Lahiri, a UK writer born of Bengali parents and currently living in New York.
Jill Steadman was one of two winners of the adult section of an ANZAC poetry competition, run by the Auckland Museum. She read her winning poem at the Museum on Anzac Day.
Vincent O'Sullivan was conferred with the honorary degree Doctor of Literature by The University of Auckland on 23 April 2008.
Congratulations to Johanna Aitchison, Angela Andrews, Emma Neale, and Vincent O'Sullivan, all of whom had poems selected for Best New Zealand Poems 2007.
Emma Neale's new collection of poems, Spark, has appeared from Steele Roberts. Say the publishers: "[Spark] will enchant and provoke, comfort and delight. From the hilarious ‘True Pregnancy Tales' to the more sobering ‘The First Stone', in which the author recounts her small child grappling with the adult concepts of war and revenge, Neale crosses between storytelling and quiet reflection with confidence and charm."
Nola Borrell's roving 'Tuatara' is soon to make another appearance, this time in The Awa Book of New Zealand Science edited by Rebecca Priestley (August 2008).
David Beach won the Prize in Modern Letters ( a $65,000 cheque) for 2008. The award was made at the tail end of the Writers and Readers' Week programme, and the NZPS wishes David hearty congratulations. You can read more at: http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/news
Heidi North, former NZPS member now on her OE, won the 2008 Féile Filíochta International Poetry Competition, taking first prize in the Adult English section. Heidi travelled to Ireland in April 2008 for the Awards Ceremony.
Laurice Gilbert, Wellington, won joint fourth prize in the 2008 St Petroc's 1st International Poetry Competition (UK).
Charlotte Trevella, Rangiora, was the only NZPS member (and one of the three youngest contributors) to have a poem selected in Our Favourite Poems - New Zealanders choose their best-loved poems (Craig Potton Publishing).
Sue Wootton, Dunedin, has been awarded the Robert Burns Fellowship for 2008.
Mary Dennis, Wellington, won the secondary school division of the Sunday Star-Times short story awards, judged by Owen Marshall. Her story was Have You Tried Therapy? Charlotte Trevella, Rangiora, was a finalist in the secondary division.
