The 2021 Sargeson Prize launches today, on Thursday April 1.

The Sargeson Prize is New Zealand’s richest short story prize, supporting our country’s creative writing talent – including the younger generation. Now in its third year, the competition is named for celebrated New Zealand writer Frank Sargeson, and is sponsored by the University of Waikato. It was established by Catherine Chidgey, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Waikato, in 2019.

Acclaimed New Zealand writer Patricia Grace is the chief judge in this year’s Sargeson Prize. 

“We are enormously lucky to have her as a judge, and she brings such mana to the competition,” says Chidgey. “She’s put New Zealand literature on the map internationally, and she’s hugely respected. Her stories are well-known and loved.”

For more information on the Sargeson Prize, see the attached media release or visit the University of Waikato website here.

This year, winning stories in both the Open and Secondary Schools category will be published online on ReadingRoom, the literary arm of Newsroom.

At Enjoy Contemporary Art Space 211 Left bank, Cuba Street

Join a selection of readers invited by Food Court Books and Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, writing around the edges of queerness and culture, intimacy and (literary) history.

Readers for the night include

Chris Tse
Sam Duckor-Jones
Khadro Mohamed
Dani Yourukova
Hannah Mettner
Joanna Cho
Areez Katki
With more to be announced.

This event is programmed alongside Areez Katki’s exhibition History reserves but a few lines for you, on until 3 April.

Interactive Karaoke Participatory Poetry

Book a spot on our glittering Leftbank stage this CubaDupa, where you’ll get to choose from a selection of high-rotation poems to perform to a rapt audience of friends, strangers and the occasional pigeon. Feeling emo? Seducing a crush? Or do you just love…. words? HIT ME BABY ONE MORE RHYME: POETRY KARAOKE is a sequinned love letter to two of our favourite art forms. Presented by Satellites and curated by Chris Tse, this experience features chart-toppers like Mohamed Hassan, Tayi Tibble, and William Shakespeare — and brought to life by a rotating cast of hosts and pop-up performers including Rose Lu, Freya Daly Sadgrove, Brannavan Gnanalingam, Rebecca Hawkes and Eamonn Mara.

Go here

Here’s Landing Press’s new project for 2021: an anthology of poems about housing

Whether you own a house, rent or are homeless, housing is a source of nostalgia and comfort, a source of stress and fear, a changing landscape in Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to hear anything you have to say about housing.

We want poems by people who have written a lot. We want poems by people who have never written before but have something to say. If you haven’t written before and would like some help, we’ll help you. 

You can send us up to 3 poems. Maximum length of each poem 40 lines. Put each poem on a separate page, and with each poem, include your name and contact details (email address, postal address and ph no). There also might be a small story behind your poem you want to include. 

Send your poems to landingpresshousing21@gmail.com  by Friday 18 June  2021. 

And please forward this information to anyone who might be interested.

We plan to publish this anthology in October 2021. All writers included in the anthology will get a complimentary copy of the book.

Landing Press is a small Wellington publisher of poems that many people can enjoy. Our most recent book, Somewhere a cleaner, is a collection of poems by cleaners. 

FfFast Fibres Poetry 8 call for submissions

The theme of Fast Fibres Poetry 8 this year is open. 

We invite poets with a strong Northland connection to submit 3 of your best poems.

Please include a two line biographical statement.

Deadline: June 11  

Send submissions by email:fastfibres@live.com

Note: Each poem should preferably be no longer than 20 lines single spaced and typed in 12 pt. Times New Roman. Poems must be submitted as a single Word document with your name in the filename. PDFs and handwritten submissions will not be considered.

Fast Fibres will be launched in print and online on National Poetry Day, August 27, 2021

Website

Would love to step through the portal to be there for this – reading Dante in Italian was a university highlight for me all those years ago!