The Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems 2011

This annual competition is run by International Writers' Workshop NZ Inc and has been made possible by a bequest from the Jocelyn Grattan Charitable Trust

Details of the 2011 competition are now available.

The Prize 
There is one prize of $2500 payable to the winner. The prize is shared equally if there is more than one winner.


Introducing the Judges 
Selina Tusitala Marsh
Selina Tusitala Marsh is of Samoan, Tuvaluan, English, Scottish and French descent. She lectures in New Zealand and Pacific Literature, and creative writing at the University of Auckland. Her first collection of poetry, Fast Talking PI, won the Jessie McKay Best First Book Award at the New Zealand Book Awards in 2010. Selina performs her poetry and runs writing workshops throughout the country. She is currently working on a Ukrainian translation of her book and a Rugby World Cup poem for Mayor Len Brown.
Stu Bagby
Stu Bagby was born in Te Kopura 1947. He is semi-retired and lives on a five-acre block of land in Albany, Auckland. Previously published in Auckland University Press’s New Poets 2, his first full collection of poems, As it was in the beginning, published by Steele Roberts, included The boys and was nominated in the Sunday Star-Times by Kevin Ireland as one of 2005’s best books. Stu is also the editor of A Good Handful: Great N Z Poems about Sex (AUP) and Just Another Fantastic Anthology: Auckland in Poetry (Antediluvian Press). His most recent collection of his own poetry, So goes the dance, published by Steele Roberts, was released at the end of 2010. Most recently his poem, The boys, was published in The best of the best NZ Poems, Victoria University Press.

Previous Winners 
Mairangi Bay poet, Alice Hooton, won the inaugural competition in 2009 with her sequence America. The judges said this about Alice's sequence: " a real sequence; a stand-alone collective piece . . . an interplay of parts  . . . haunting . . . they can't be exhausted on a single reading". The prize money helped Alice to launch her first collection of poems, Shamfeign, earlier this year, and the sequence leads IWW's 2011 Anthology, Beyond The Persimmon Tree (see www.iww.co.nz/book.htm).


In 2010, Janet Charman and Rosetta Allan shared the prize.
Janet's sequence, Mother won't come to us, was described:  " . . . the grim and complex themes this poet deals with are more powerful than anything else we had to read this time. Again and again individual poems stood out with a kind of gloomy ferocity ... Dark and clever and hopeful, too. There is a net gallows humour about your work; a lopsided smile."
Rosetta's sequence, Capricious Memory, was described: " . . .It builds in power as one reads . . . innovative in form as well as subject matter. Bravo! Unquestionably good work . . . You are adventurous with form and this is a strength."


How to Enter
Entrants to the competition must be members of International Writers' Workshop NZ Inc, having joined by 1st July 2011, and must be resident in New Zealand.  Membership is $25 if electing to receive newsletter by email, otherwise $30.
Copies of the rules are on the International Writers' Workshop website - www.iww.co.nz - go to the competitions page. How to join is also outlined on this page. 


Closing date for entries is 4th October 2011. The winner will be announced at a lunchtime prize giving function on 15th November 2011.


For more information, contact Sue Courtney, sue@iww.co.nz, ph (09) 473 5110.
International Writers' Workshop NZ Inc
PO Box 36652
Northcote 0748