International Poetry Prize 2016 – Winners

The $500 First Prize in the 2016 Caselberg Trust International poetry competition has been awarded to Leslie McKay, of Maruia Valley, for her poem ‘Bold Feral and Tender’.

This year’s judge, former Poetry Laureate Vincent O’Sullivan, chose the winning work from nearly 300 entries. Second Prize of $250 went to Auckland poet Riemke Ensing for her poem ‘At the Caselberg House in Broad Bay’, celebrating the work of artist Anna Caselberg.

Another six poems were highly commended by the judge: ‘Agreement on this day’ by Paula Clare King; ‘Learning my partner’s language’, by Michaela Keeble; ‘Milking’, by Jillian Sullivan; ‘Sure-footed’, by Kerrin Sharpe; ‘Clearing out my Parents’ House’, by Lynne Kohen; and ‘The comfort of stories’, another entry by Riemke Ensing.

The judge’s report and the two prize-winning poems will be published in the November issue (#232) of the literary journal Landfall, and all the winning works will appear on the website of the Caselberg Trust in November.

An anthology of prize-winning poems from the Caselberg Trust International poetry competition for 2011 to 2016 is to be published this year by the Trust, to help raise funds for its artists’ residence at Broad Bay, on the Otago Peninsula.