2019 International Poetry Prize Announcement

We are pleased to announce the winners of this year's International Poetry Prize, and details of our Awards Night, at UBS Bookshop on 26 November.

First place went to Gail Ingram (pictured below) from Christchurch for her poem "The social-media cat got their tongues”. Gail receives $500 and a week stay at the Caselberg House. Gail is the author of Contents Under Pressure (Pūkeko Publications 2019), a novella told in poetry. Her poetry and short stories are widely published in New Zealand and overseas. Previously, Gail has won the New Zealand Poetry Society competition, and taken third prize in the Poets Meet Politics international poetry competition. She lives and writes on the Port Hills of Christchurch. See more at https://www.theseventhletter.nz/

Gail Ingram

Second place went to 'the fungibility of thought’ by 2018 winner Derek Schulz. Derek receives $250. Both poems and the judges report will be published in November in Landfall 238 – Spring 2019. This year’s competition was judged by poet Dinah Hawken from Paekakariki.

The five Highly Commended entries were “Dog” and “R channels David Attenborough” both by Mary Macpherson (Wellington), “Somebody killed the cat” by Emer Lyons (Dunedin), “Second Language” by Ruby Solly (Wellington), and “Catch and Release” by Alan Roddick (Dunedin). Their poems, along with the two winning entries and the judges report, will be published on the Caselberg Trust website in late November.

In her report, Dinah Hawken describes what she feels makes an attractive and sustainable poem: “I warm to a poem that makes an impact emotionally as well as an impact of ideas and description. I like poems that, in my serious mind, ‘really matter’ in this unsettled world, though I know what really matters is changeable, individual and wide ranging.“

International Poetry Prize Awards Night
University Book Shop
378 Great King Street, Dunedin
5.30pm, Tuesday 26 November
Free to attend, all welcome!

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