This is brilliant! Check out Faith Wilson’s review here.

‘As I drank every word of Rangikura, then back to Poūkangatus then back to Rangikura again, I felt myself defrost. Yes, poetry can be fucking good, can be genius even. That this enigmatic kid from Porirua, this Māori Mona Lisa, was out here, walking over the words of the dead white poets in stiletto heels and dripping gold, was doing her own kanikani, the one only she knows, evolved from ancestral blessedness, showing the world, showing me, showing you, how it’s done.’

 

Annual award of $10,000 – open now with deadline of 20 August 2021

Open to writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama who are currently working on a new project.

Opens for applications between June and August in any given year 

Applicants must be members of the NZ Society of Authors. More information below, or email the national office.

Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship information

Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship 2021 Application form

Gaps in the Light, Iona Winter, Ad Hoc Fiction, 2021

Iona Winter reads ‘Gregorian’

Iona Winter (Waitaha/Kāi Tahu) lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin. Her hybrid work is widely published and anthologised in literary journals internationally. Iona creates work to be performed, relishing cross-modality collaboration, and holds a Master of Creative Writing. She has authored three collections, Gaps in the Light (2021), Te Hau Kāika (2019), and then the wind came (2018). Skilled at giving voice to difficult topics, she often draws on her deep connection to land, place and whenua.

Ad Hoc Fiction page

2021 Kathleen Grattan Prize announcement

International Writers’ Workshop NZ Inc (IWW) is delighted to announce that renowned New Zealand poet Vana Manasiadis, will judge The Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems later this year. The official announcement was made at IWW’s annual Mid-Winter lunch in Northcote yesterday.

Vana Manasiadis is a New Zealand-Greek writer, translator and creative writing teacher whose collection of poetry The Grief Almanac: A Sequel was launched in May 2019. Along with Behrouz Boochani Vana is a 2021 Ursula Bethell Writer-in-Residence at Te Whare Wānaga o Waitaha Canterbury University.

The prize of $1,000 – which is made possible due to an ongoing bequest from the Jocelyn Grattan Charitable Trust – is for a cycle or sequence of unpublished poems that has a common link or theme. This is the thirteenth year IWW has had the honour of organising the Prize.

In 2020, the prize was won by Wanaka poet Liz Breslin for her sequence titled: In Bed with the Feminists.  

The competition is free for IWW members to enter.  It is very easy for aspiring poets and writers to join IWW to be eligible to enter their poetry in the competition.

Previous winners over the past few years include: Liz Breslin (2020) Siobhan Harvey (2019) Heather Bauchop (2018), Janet Newman (2017), Michael Giacon (2016) Maris O’Rourke (2015) and Julie Ryan (2014.)

Manasiadis said: “The prize is so important to the country’s literary landscape, and I am very honoured to be judging this year’s competition. I can’t wait to spend time with the talents of the 2021 entries – and I hope there will be many of them!”

President of IWW, Duncan Perkinson said: “As a writing group, we are proud to organise The Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems and we are thrilled to have Vana judge this year’s competition. Both of the two previous winners (Liz Breslin in 2020 and Siobhan Harvey in 2019) have used the prize as a springboard to launch their books – In Bed with the Feminists and Ghosts – with both having been released in the past couple of months.”

About the Judge

Born in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Vana Manasiadis has been moving between Aotearoa New Zealand and Europe the last 25 years. Her poetry experiments with hybridity and code-switching and has been translated into Greek and Italian, and she has edited and translated from the Greek for Shipwrecks/Shelters, a selection of contemporary Greek poetry. In 2018 she co-edited Tātai Whetū: Seven Māori Women Poets in Translation with Maraea Rakuraku.

Preparatory Workshop

As well as judging the competition, Manasiadis will conduct a workshop on Writing Poetry at IWW’s meeting venue, the Lindisfarne Room at St Aidan’s Church, 97 Onewa Road, Northcote, Auckland on Tuesday August 17th. Doors open at 10 am and the workshop runs from 10.30 am to 12.30 pm. While visitors are welcome to attend the workshop for a $10 visitor fee, potential entrants must have joined IWW before July 20th in order to enter the competition.

About the Competition and about IWW

The rules for the competition, details of how to join IWW, meeting times and other activities of the workshop, which meets on the first and third Tuesdays of the month from February to November and runs several competitions a year, are available from the IWW website: iww.co.nz.

Key Dates for The Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems in 2021

20 July: Last day for new members to join IWW to be eligible to enter this year’s Prize.

17 August: Workshop with Vana Manasiadis on writing poetry.

5 October: Closing date for entries.

16 November: Announcement of the 2021 winner of The Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems.

Contact

For further information about the Prize or about IWW, contact Duncan Perkinson, email iww-writers@outlook.com or check out the website

go here

You are warmly invited to the launch of  Selected Poems by Harry Ricketts at Unity Books, Wellington on Wednesday 23 June, 6pm Harry will be joined by special guests for poetry readings All welcome.

Compound Press and Dead Bird Books present: Alison Glenny – Bird Collector
Liz Breslin – In Bed with the Feminists. A double book launch for two very different works by comrades in writing. Please join us for some refreshing words and wordy refreshments.

When: The residency period is Sunday 17 October (arrive this day to settle in) until Monday 8 November (check out of accommodation).

What: You will receive a $3,000NZD stipend to cover food and other incidental expenses over your three-week stay. From Monday to Friday during each of the three weeks, you will have use of a small, private office space with access to Wifi and basic kitchen facilities at Katherine Mansfield House & Garden. You will have warm, sunny, self-catering Airbnb accommodation located close to the Botanic Gardens and within walking distance to Katherine Mansfield House & Garden and the CBD. 

Required: You will be required to do up to two public events while in Wellington for the residency (one event may be within the Verb Writers Festival which is 3 – 7 November) and to attend one welcome dinner and farewell event. 

Travel: Aotearoa authors will need to cover the cost of domestic travel to Wellington. 

Application requirements: Before you begin, please be aware that to complete the registration you will need to attach a 10-page sample of work with 1.5 line spaces and in 12-point font. You will also need to attach a maximum 2-page CV. 

Application fee: We charge $10NZD per application. We are a Charitable Trust and this amount means we cover the costs of administration for the residency.

Deadlines: applications open on Friday 11 June and close Friday 9 July. The successful applicant will be notified by Monday 26 July.

full details here

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington’s International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) is delighted to announce Simone Kaho as the 2022 Emerging Pasifika Writer in Residence.

Simone will receive a stipend of $15,000 from Creative New Zealand to work on a collection of essays about identity and colonisation in Aotearoa New Zealand, with a special focus on the Pacific diaspora. She will also be supported by a mentor, funded by the University.

Born in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Simone is well known as a performance poet and creative non-fiction writer. Her 2016 poetry collection Lucky Punch was called “brave and beguiling” in the New Zealand Herald, while the Pantograph Punch noted the book’s “affirming joy”. She has a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the IIML, which she received in 2010. 

Simone directed the E-Tangata documentary series Conversations, which features six Māori and Pasifika women telling their stories. She also wrote the editorial and stories for WAKA, about the battle to continue cultural practices around waka building and way-finding. She now works as a reporter for Tagata Pasifika. 

Simone is looking forward to working on a collection of creative non-fiction essays during the residency. “I’m so happy to be awarded this residency. I’d put the idea on the shelf as work that’s too creative to be saleable to magazines, so work I’d end up doing in ‘hobby time’. It needs more time and space than that.

“The project follows lines of cultural inquiry I see emerging around me in Aotearoa—about who ‘we’ are and who gets to define ‘us’—from my viewpoint as a Tongan and Pākehā person for whom being ‘other’ is normal. I’m grateful for the time and space to work on it, and for the vote of confidence from the IIML, which means a lot to me.”

Professor Damien Wilkins, director of the IIML, says, “We’re very excited to host Simone later in the year. The residency recognises a new stage in her development as a writer whose work for E-Tangata has allowed her to build an impressive body of feature pieces. This work sits alongside her terrific poetry, with the residency allowing Simone to go deeper into these urgent topics.”