Thursday, July 26, 2007


NEWS FROM THE IIML NEWSLETTER

Ten talented teenage poets on New Zealand Post shortlist

Ernest Hemingway, fish, Taipei, musical scales and kayaks are a taste of the themes preoccupying the ten finalists in this year's New Zealand Post Poetry Awards. The ten finalists, a tiny proportion of hundreds of entrants from around New Zealand, are competing for a grand prize of cash and the chance for one poem to be turned into a song. Winners will be announced on August 17 at a ceremony in Wellington.

Judge Andrew Johnston (2007 J D Stout Research Fellow at Victoria University) says he was astonished by the range of tones and voices that came across in the ten very different poems. ‘In every case their energy and curiosity leapt out at me, and sometimes their imperfections make them much more interesting than poems that are polished but predictable. I'm confident the authors have what it takes to write even better poems, and it's exciting to imagine what they might go on to do.’

This is the first time the competition has offered the prize for a shortlisted poem to be recorded by Black Seeds performer Barnaby Weir. The song will be performed, distributed to radio stations and made available for free download on iTunes and Digirama. The overall competition winner will take away a $500 cash prize and a $500 grant to their school library. All ten finalists will have their expenses paid to attend a poetry masterclass at Victoria University in Wellington, and receive a package of book tokens and literary subscriptions from the New Zealand Book Council, Booksellers New Zealand, the New Zealand Society of Authors, and Sport and Landfall.

And the finalists are:

Zoe Newman, Year 13, Dargaville School
Laura Lincoln, Year 12, Karamu High School, Hastings
Michaela Ball, Year 13, Cashmere High School, Christchurch
Chloë Nannestad, Year 12, Epsom Girls Grammar, Auckland
Alisha Vara, Year 13, Rangi Ruru Girls School, Christchurch
Sam Wells, Year 12, Wellington College
Sue Mun Huang, Year 12, Karamu High School, Hastings
Michael Trigg, Year 13, Wellington College
Sarah Zydervelt, Year 12, Nayland College, Nelson
Shannyn Boyd, Year 12, Hutt Valley High School, Lower Hutt

The expanding bookshelf

Damien Wilkins will launch 2005 MA (Page) graduate Mary McCallum’s first novel The Blue (Penguin) in Eastbourne next week. The novel is set in an isolated whaling community in the 1930s, and rumour has it that the launch is to feature food appropriate to the period, although we assume the author’s quest for veracity won’t stretch as far as offering whale meat amongst the hors d’oeuvres. Mary McCallum discusses (and previews) the novel in her New Zealand Book Month blog
http://nzbookmonth.co.nz/blogs/mary_mccallum/default.aspx


Illustrating children's books with Fifi Colston

Fifi Colston is a children’s book writer and illustrator with over 28 titles to her name (as well as an MA in Creative Writing from the IIML). She is offering a weekend workshop on illustrating children’s books that will look at character development, what makes a picture book great and examine illustration from a child's point of view. The workshop takes place in a central city (Wellington) location on the weekend of 18 -19 August, from 10am- 4.30pm. The cost of $250 includes all art materials, tea and coffee.
All levels of ability are welcome,
bookings essential (tel 021 448884 / email fific@paradise.net.nz).

Taken from the 111th in a series of occasional newsletters from the Victoria University centre of the International Institute of Modern Letters. For more information about any of the items, please email modernletters@vuw.ac.nz

You can also read the whole newsletter online at: http://www.vuw.ac.nz/modernletters/activities/newsletter.aspx (after tomorrow).

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