Find out about the benefits of joining the New Zealand Poetry Society here
Deadline for submissions to the NZPS magazine, a fine line: 7 August. Submission guidelines are at: http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/aboutsubmissionguidelines
Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand - Award Nominations
Helen Lowe was nominated in 2 categories of the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for 2009: Best Novel - Young Adult (for Thornspell) and Best New talent and won both! Congratulations Helen. Tim Jones had 2 nominations in one category - Best Collected Work - for Transported, his second short story collection, and JAAM 26, which he edited.
Poems in the Waiting Room, Dunedin
Ruth Arnison of Otago has successfully established a local Poems in the Waiting Room scheme, under licence and start-up grant from Poems in the Waiting Room UK. The initial summer print run in November/December 2008 was 500 cards; there were 1000 for autumn and she's looking at 2000 cards for the winter edition. The poetry cards combine classic poems, including many from UK PitWR earlier editions, with new work by New Zealand poets. They have been welcomed by Dunedin medical practitioners and rest homes, and supplies have quickly run out in a number of surgeries. Armed with the local licence, Ruth is now looking forward to expanding the project to cover more of NZ. Contact Ruth Arnison arnison@xnet.co.nz You can follow the progress of the project at http://www.pitwrnz.blogspot.com/
New anthology of illustrated speculative poetry.
NZPS member John Irvine's Anomalous Appetites is live. "For those readers who like their horror and sci fi sautéed slowly with garlic and served up on fine china, then this anthology is for you. Do not expect axe hacking, explosions, bug eyed monsters or crudeness. Do expect fine and subtle poetry augmented by exquisite art ... every single poem is illustrated. This is a collector's anthology, created for those who are a little more discerning in their speculative tastes. We offer two hundred and nine pages of the best speculative poetry and art you will ever see from poets and artists from all corners of this creative planet."
The book may be purchased by visiting the following link: http://www.lulu.com/content/3236199 ISBN: 978-1-4092-5973-2
Tennyson's Bicentenary
A great celebration is taking place on the Isle of Wight. See: http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/abouttennyson
The Cuba Street Garret, Wellington
The Cuba Street Garret is a combination of solitude and community for the toner-stained wretches we know as writers. We have trnasformed a flat on Cuba Street, outfitting it with offices so that writers can move in and get to work. Heat, Internet, and cleaning services are provided, of course. This workspace is called The Cuba Street Garret because Cuba Street is where it's located, and 'Garret' since there are few writers who can even afford a garret these days, but this would perhaps make that dream possible for several of them.
Costs are, naturally, a primary concern for everyone, so the rent is currently only $80 per week; it could well be less than that once the fourteen (14) offices are filled. And there will be no lengthy leases. Writers will never be asked to commit to more than one month at a time. The success of The Cuba Street Garret will come from the positive atmosphere therein. Members of The Garret will meet for lunch once a month.
Further Information: Located in the Watkins Building (corner of Cuba and Vivian Streets), The Cuba Street Garret has a progenitor of a sort back in San Francisco, The Sanchez Grotto Annex http://www.sanchezannex.com if anyone wants to see how a writers' workspace works. Those offices now have a waiting list, and we expect to have the same level of participation in Wellington.
Writers who wish to learn more or visit The Garret should contact Doug Wilkins: dbwilkins@gmail.com and/or 021-138-5050
Robert Burns Fellow, 2009
Central Otago poet, editor and psychotherapist Michael Harlow has been announced as the 2009 Robert Burns Fellow. He will use his tenure to write a new book of poems and short prose, titled The Invisible Reader. His new collection The Tram Conductor's Blue Cap (AUP) will be released in February 2009. Michael will judge the Open Section of the 2009 NZPS International Poetry Competition. See: http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/about2009competition
Online International Poetry Competition
The combined NZPS and online book publisher www.bookhabit.com international online poetry competition is over, and the winners, selected by David Geary, have been announced. The overall winner is M.D. Friedman with his audio poem 'A Good Dog'.
The winners of the individual sections are:
Written:
'Of Horologists and Jazzologists' Blair Reeve http://www.bookhabit.com/competition/poem_popup.php?pmid=2050
'We Get On' Holly Painter http://www.bookhabit.com/competition/poem_popup.php?pmid=4202
'The Poet From Minnesota' Mary Leary http://www.bookhabit.com/competition/poem_popup.php?pmid=3185
Audio and Video:
A Good Dog M.D. Friedman http://www.bookhabit.com/competition/avpopup.php?pmid=4195
'ADD TV' JeFF Stumpo http://www.bookhabit.com/competition/avpopup.php?pmid=2123
'Circumnavigation' Blair Reeve http://www.bookhabit.com/competition/avpopup.php?pmid=462
And the People's Performance Choice was won by JeFF Stumpo for 'ADD TV'.
Two Hundred and Four New Poems About Wellington
Michele Amas of Wellington won first prize ($1000) in the Wellington Sonnet Competition 2008 with her poem, ‘Wellington Sonnet'. Saradha Koirala, also from Wellington, won second prize ($500) with ‘Courtenay Place' and third prize ($250) was won by Richard Reeve of Dunedin for his poem ‘Turn On.'
The ten Highly Commended entries ($50 each) were from Daryl McLaren (Otaki); Lorraine Singh (Wellington); Cath Vidler (Sydney); Linzee Inkster (Raumati Beach); Trina Saffioti (Karori); Adrienne Jansen (Titahi Bay); Tim Nees (Wellington); Michael O'Leary (Paekakariki); David Chadwick (Otaki) and Kerry Popplewell (Wellington).
Judge Harry Ricketts says he found the 204 entries engagingly varied, some of them showing considerable ingenuity, and that Wellington's weather featured strongly in many of the poems. He adds that some entrants seemed to think they were asked to produce a kind of advert for Wellington, but he was looking for excellent poems in their own right.
The winning sonnet personifies the city as a moody adolescent. Michele Amas says it was a way of expressing the feeling that ‘one minute it's so charming you love it to bits and the next it's testing your endurance.'
John Allen, Chief Executive of New Zealand Post, announced the winners on 1 December 2008. The competition was sponsored by New Zealand Post and organised by the Wellington Writers Walk Committee of the New Zealand Society of Authors. It attracted entries from all over New Zealand and from Fiji and Australia.
Chair of the Wellington Writers Walk Committee, Rosemary Wildblood, said that the competition was great fun for the committee to organise and achieved its objectives of raising the profile of the Wellington Writers Walk and raising support for its ongoing development.
Radio Interview - National Coordinator
Laurice Gilbert, NZPS National Coordinator and current President, was interviewed by Eva Radich on Radio New Zealand's 'Upbeat' programme, on Wednesday 23rd April. Go to: http://www.fluctu8.com/media/8392/36590/ and scroll down to the Upbeat box. It's just over 20 minutes long, so allow plenty of listening time.
Humour in poetry
A wee Scottish poetry joke currently doing the rounds on the Internet (with many thanks to the IIML for sharing it):
Tony Blair is visiting an Edinburgh hospital. He enters a ward full of patients with no obvious sign of injury or illness and greets one. The patient replies:
Fair fa your honest sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin race,
Aboon them a ye take yer place,
Painch, tripe or thairm,
As langs my airm.
Blair is confused, so he just grins and moves on to the next patient. The patient responds:
Some hae meat an canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat an we can eat,
So let the Lord be thankit.
Even more confused, and his grin now rictus-like, the PM moves on to the next
patient, who immediately begins to chant:
Wee sleekit, cowerin, timorous beasty,
O the panic in thy breasty,
Thou needna start awa sae hastie,
Wi bickering brattle
Now seriously troubled, Blair turns to the accompanying doctor and asks, ‘Is this a psychiatric ward?'
‘No,' replies the doctor, ‘this is the serious Burns unit.'
