Caselberg Trust International Poetry Prize 2021 – winners announced

The winners of the 2021 Caselberg Trust International Poetry Prize have been announced.

The competition is now in its eleventh year, and this year attracted 136 poems from across New Zealand and Australia. This year’s competition was judged by Ōtepoti – Dunedin writer Majella Cullinane.

Judging

First place goes to Sophia Wilson from Ōtepoti - Dunedin for her poem “Sea-skins”, and ‘Kintsukuroi’ by Ōtautahi - Christchurch based Jenna Heller was placed runner up. The winner receives $500 and a week’s stay at the Caselberg House. The second placed poet receives $250. Both poems and the judges report will be published in November in Landfall 242 – Spring 2021.

The five Highly Commended entries were “At Bluecliffs” by Alan Roddick (Ōtepoti – Dunedin), ‘The domestic assistant” by Jane Simpson (Ōtautahi - Christchurch), “Ode to L” by Sandie Forsyth (Ōtepoti - Dunedin), “Inversion Layers, Hāwea” by Jilly O’Brien (Ōtepoti – Dunedin), and “Kōanga Ngākau” by Derek Schulz (Raumati Beach). 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 judges report Majella Cullinane noted that, “The subject matter of entries was broad: political and social commentary on recent events in Aotearoa, nature, love, ghosts, death and identity”, and said of Sophia Wilson’s winning poem Sea-skins “drew me back again and again with its inventive language, and the assuredness of its voice. The leaps of imagination between stanzas, between the ordinary and extraordinary are surprising and original.

Sophia Wilson

Sophia Wilson

Sophia Wilson’s writing has appeared in various journals and anthologies in Australasia and abroad. Her poetry was recognised in the recent Kathleen Grattan Prize, the Robert Burns Poetry Competition, and the Hippocrates Prize. She lives and works on a rural property near Ōtepoti Dunedin.

Jenna Heller

Jenna Heller

An American-Kiwi poet and fiction writer living in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand. In 2020, she was the overall winner of the NZ National Flash Fiction Day competition and had poems shortlisted for two New Zealand prizes. Her flash fiction has been selected for inclusion in the international Best Small Fictions anthology in 2020 and forthcoming in 2021, and her first young adult manuscript was shortlisted for the 2019 Text Prize. She also teaches (and learns from) the next generation of writers at WRITE ON School for Young Writers.

Awards evening

Due to Covid 19 Level 2 restrictions, the awards night will now be by invitation only in order to manage numbers, we thank you for understanding.

Contacts for further information:

Robert West – email: info@caselbergtrust.org