Saturday 16 March 2019

Upcoming events: Massey University World Poetry Day Reading [21/3/19]



Massey Albany World Poetry Day Reading


Since the brutal terrorist attack on the people gathered for Friday Prayers in two mosques in Christchurch on Friday afternoon, 15th March, I feel that it's more important than ever that we gather together to express our complete rejection of such insane and pointless acts of violence. We thought such things could never happen in New Zealand. We were wrong.



I for one will be wearing black on Thursday, and will go to Student Central in Massey's Albany campus prepared to read and listen to poems dedicated to peace, justice and human understanding. I hope those of you who are in the area can join us. You will be very welcome.



Here is a link to a map of the area. The reading will take place in the East Precinct at midday, outside the building marked '4' on the map above (or inside if it's raining).

Albany Students Association Advocacy Coordinator Penny Lyall stressed, in her original invitation to this event, acts of sexual assault and violence. We continue to utterly repudiate those, but history has now opened up the conversation to force us to include terrorism in the list of things we are fighting against:

Message from Penny Lyall – ASA Advocacy
_________________________________________________

I have just started a new initiative on the Albany Campus called Thursdays in Black. This is to promote that in no way is sexual assault and violence ever acceptable.  Thus to encourage students and staff to actively acknowledge and create a safe culture on campus.

I am attaching the schedule of events that will be held each week for your interest and should you want to promote and display them somewhere.

What is of particular interest is that we will be recognising and celebrating World Poetry Day on the Thursday 21st March (Student Central Concourse or ASA Student Lounge if raining) ..

We are hoping that students and staff (both academic and general staff) will come along and perform original poems or just read poems aloud that touch them.

Jack Ross and Bryan Walpert and are both hoping to come along for a while and may perform.  

I would love a good selection of students and staff present performing or just listening.

Kind regards
Penny



Penny Lyall
Advocacy Coordinator
Albany Students' Association Inc
Level 2, Student Central, Massey University Albany Campus
Private Bag 102904, NSMC, Auckland, 0745

ddi: 09 213 6074 |  int: 43074 | mob: 027 426 7861
[www.facebook.com/albanystudents]www.facebook.com/albanystudents


Massey Albany Thursdays-in-Black Schedule


Thursday 14 March 2019

Jennifer Little's Review on Massey News [13/3/19]

New Poetry NZ Yearbook moves in many ways



Poetry NZ Yearbook 2019's featured poet Stephanie Christie, about to read her work at the launch in Devonport Library, with Dr Jack Ross.




Poetry NZ Yearbook cover


Poet Fardowsa Mohamed reads at the launch


Poet Michele Leggott recites her new poem

Laugh, cry, take your breath away or send shivers down your spine – that’s how editor Dr Jack Ross hopes his selection of 120 plus poems in the Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2019 will affect readers.

Launched last week at the Devonport Library in Auckland to a packed room of over 200, issue number 53 of New Zealand’s longest-running poetry journal and the third to be published by Massey University Press includes new migrant voices, veteran poets and even a veterinary professor-turned-poet.

Dr Ross, a poet, editor and senior lecturer in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey’s Albany campus, says the task of sifting through over a thousand submissions to choose 130 for the book is formidable as well as a tremendous privilege. Always with an ear tuned for fresh and challenging new voices and views, he has mustered a bracing array of poetry from a diverse set of writers.

From modern probes into religion, romance, love, death and loss to the inner lives of a retail worker, a refugee, a doctor, a drunk – the eclectic mix offers poems in a multitude of forms, including prose pieces. As well as captivating lines by emerging poets there is new work by some of the country’s most respected names, such as New Zealand’s inaugural Poet Laureate Michele Leggott, along with Elizabeth Smither, Emma Neale and Bob Orr. There are dual-text poems too, in Chinese, German, Spanish and te reo Māori, as well as 20 poems and an interview with featured Hamilton poet Stephanie Christie.

A number of Massey graduates and staff who are also published authors made the grade, including Professor Bryan Walpert, Dr Johanna Emeney, Dr Matthew Harris, Bonnie Etherington, Sue Wootton and Jessica Pawley, who wrote one of three literary essays in the book.

Wildbase vet a prize-winning poet


Another Massey contributor is Brett Gartrell, a professor in Wildlife Health in the School of Veterinary Science and clinical director of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at the Manawatū campus. He gained second place and a $300 in prize money for his poem; ‘After the principal calls’.

Beyond his day job saving injured native birds and animals and teaching others how to do the same, he has been taking courses through the School of English and Media Studies for the past decade, including on fiction writing, creative non-fiction, children’s writing, life writing and poetry.

“I never thought of myself as a poet previously, but I was inspired by the teaching and poetry of Professor Bryan Walpert in particular,” says Professor Gartrell, who has just completed a portfolio of poetry and essay for his master’s of Creative Writing. “I’ve discovered poetry as something that both challenges and intrigues me.”

His foray into studying poetry has, he says, “given me a perspective on my teaching. I have been challenged and mostly delighted by the teaching excellence of my tutors and lecturers. I think all academics could benefit from this role reversal from time to time.”

What does he most like about writing poetry? “It’s the combination of creative flow and control. It’s the challenge of allowing a poem to find its own direction and surprising conjunctions which then needs to be followed by the control of distillation; of condensing and communicating the most complex of lyrical moments through the words and structure of the poem.

“As Jasper Fforde writes in First Among Sequels; “Whereas story is processed in the mind in a straightforward manner, poetry bypasses rational thought and goes straight to the limbic system and lights it up like a brushfire. It's the crack cocaine of the literary world.”

Poetry editor to ghost writer


“I feel the most proud of this volume,” says Dr Ross, of the fifth consecutive edition of the Poetry New Zealand he has edited, not including one as a guest editor some years ago.

He says in the book’s introduction, What makes a poem good?, that being moved emotionally has increasingly become his sense of a successful poem, which may be about something funny, or painful or revealing. “It’s not that I sit here boo-hooing as I read through all the submissions for each issue – but every now and then something in one of them sits up and looks alive, persuades me that something is being worked out here that might be relevant to others simply because it seems so relevant to me.”

Mostly, he hopes the book will help to make poetry more visible, more accessible and maybe ignite new interest among a wider, more culturally diverse audience. This edition is his last as editor for the time being – he is handing the editorial reins for the next issue over to Dr Johanna Emeney, a published poet and creative writing lecturer at Massey. He is hoping to be able to devote more time to working on his own writing, with a project in the pipeline to explore his longheld fascination about ghost stories and the psychology behind them.


Related articles


Massey University Press publishes 'Poetry New Zealand Yearbook'
Abundance of young voices in latest Poetry NZ
Te Reo surge in latest Poetry NZ
‘Machinery for imagining’ in Poetry NZ

Created: 13/03/2019 | Last updated: 13/03/2019

Tuesday 12 March 2019

Radio NZ: Jesse Mulligan 1-4 [11/3/18]

Celebrating New Zealand poetry

From Jesse Mulligan, 1–4pm, 1:28 pm on 11 March 2019
No caption
Photo: Supplied

Poetry New Zealand Yearbook's 2019 edition is out now, focusing on Hamilton poet Stephanie Christie, and containing more than 120 poems.

The country's longest-running poetry journal also features the work of young kiwi poets, winners of the inaugural competition for high school students.

Dr Jack Ross, senior lecturer at Massey University and managing editor of Poetry New Zealand, joins us now to give us a taste of what's in the yearbook.


Jack Ross






Wednesday 6 March 2019

Images from the Poetry NZ Yearbook 2019 Launch



Featured Poet Stephanie Christie at the Devonport Library
[photo: Bronwyn Lloyd]



Order of Events:


Paul Beachman & Jack Ross [photo: BL]

Introduction:
Paul Beachman (Devonport Library Associates)




Jack Ross [photo: BL]

MC:
Jack Ross (Editor: Poetry New Zealand)




Nicola Legat [photo: BL]

Publisher (Massey University Press):
Nicola Legat




Stephanie Christie [photo: BL]

Featured Poet:
Stephanie Christie




Stephanie Christie [photo: BL]




Chris Gallavin [photo: BL]

Launch speech:
Prof Chris Gallavin


PNZ Poetry Prize winners:



Natalie Modrich [photo: BL]

Natalie Modrich - 3rd prize for 'Retail' (p.213)




Natalie Modrich [photo: BL]

Brett Gartrell - 2nd prize for 'After the principal calls' (p.210)
[sent his apologies, so poem read out by Jack Ross]

Wes Lee - 1st prize for ‘The Things She Remembers #1’ (p.206)
[sent her apologies, so poem read out by Jack Ross]


Other poets from this and past issues:



Johanna Emeney [photo: BL]

Johanna Emeney




Alexandra Fraser [photo: BL]

Alexandra Fraser




Michele Leggott [photo: BL]

Michele Leggott




Fardowsa Mohamed [photo: BL]

Fardowsa Mohamed




Tracey Slaughter [photo: BL]

Tracey Slaughter




Bryan Walpert [photo: BL]

Bryan Walpert




Bryan Walpert [photo: BL]

Conclusion:
Book signing




Cover design: Jo Bailey





Thursday 17 January 2019

Poetry New Zealand Poetry Prize Winners 2019



Cover design: Jo Bailey

Third Annual Poetry New Zealand Poetry Prize:
Winners 2019



First prize:Wes Lee,
for ‘The Things She Remembers #1’

... Standing looking in the mirror saying:
No, No / The cold orange lipstick of the
Big Nurse / The patient who screamed like
a bird / her mouth wide as the abyss /
The patient who jumped on my back, kicked
in her heels, tried to gee me up like a
donkey / The painful embarrassment of being
thirteen / The laughter of the nurses / At
a terrible time I believed / At terrible times
I still believe / There are still things left to
sell / On the bus a wasp and a homeless man.

Bio-note:

Wes Lee lives in Wellington. Her poetry has appeared in The Stinging Fly, New Writing Scotland, Westerly, Landfall, The London Magazine, Cordite, The London Reader, Irises: The University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s Poetry Prize Anthology 2017, and many other journals and anthologies. She was a finalist in the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize 2018. The url to her website is https://www.weslee.co.nz.


Second prize:Brett Gartrell,
for ‘After the principal calls’

... The dogs broke into the hen house
stringing two birds out in bloody feathered scraps.
My son cornered the panting terriers
washed the blood from their lips
as they licked the tears from his eyes.

Bio-note:

Brett Gartrell lives and works in the Manawatū, caring for small broken things. He wrote these poems as part of the Master’s of Creative Writing degree at Massey University. His Massey staff profile can be found here.




Natalie Modrich


Third prize:Natalie Modrich,
for ‘Retail’

... I have had a headache for three days
I’ve forgotten what it feels like
to wear my own clothes
I don’t care
how your day has been
or if you have a nice rest of your day
you have no idea
how much I don’t fucking care
but is there anything else I can help you with?
Great,
have a nice day rest of your day.

Bio-note:

Natalie Modrich has recently returned to studying a Bachelor of Arts in English at Massey University. She took a semester off in 2017 to travel Europe after working in a soul-crushing retail job. The poem featuring in this yearbook is a very therapeutic poem.

You can find the complete texts of all three poems printed on pp. 206-13 of Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2019.

Further remarks on each poem are included in my editorial for the issue, available on the Poetry New Zealand index site.



Wednesday 16 January 2019

10 Questions with Jack Ross [16/1/19]



photograph: Mary Paul

10 Questions with Jack Ross
Editor of Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2019


This interview appeared on the Massey University Press website on 16th January 2019:

  1. Another Poetry New Zealand Yearbook is off to print. What are the strengths of the 2019 edition?

  2. I think this may well be the issue I’m proudest of so far. We have a very strong poetry feature, from one of New Zealand’s most original — though still strangely neglected — poets. We have a nice blend of essays, ranging from the very personal (Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod’s piece on her father’s suicide) to the profoundly learned (Erena Shingade’s analysis of Richard von Sturmer’s Zen poetics). We have deeply considered reviews of a range of recent books. Above all, though, we have a positive cornucopia of poems by hordes of poets old and new. I defy anyone not to find something to like in there.

  3. How many submissions were there this time around?

  4. 272 email submissions (more or less) , together with 11 mail submissions: averaging four or five poems each — I guess that would add up to something like 1275 poems I had to read through to come up with the 100-odd I was able to include.

  5. Was sifting through them to arrive at your shortlist of 126 any less challenging than usual?

  6. No. It always takes far longer than I think it’s going to. First there’s the reading, and the initial winnowing of as few submissions as possible into the ‘potentials’ file. Those few keep on growing and growing, alas, because so many writers send in so many fine poems. Then there’s the final cutting and slashing at the longlist of poems I’d like to put in, designed to transform that category into poems I simply have to include.

  7. There’s a great spread of age and experience in this book. Does the number of young writers bode well for poetry in New Zealand?

  8. Well, yes, I think it does. Mind you, the subject matter of their poetry tends to be darker than I would like sometimes — but there’s no denying that the intensity of the emotions these young writers feel tends to concentrate their work amazingly. There’s nothing diffuse or self-indulgent about the best of them. But they seem only too aware that they’ve been doomed to live in interesting times. Franklin Roosevelt said in the 1930s that the generation then coming of age had ‘a rendezvous with destiny’ ahead of them. As it turned out, he was quite right. I can’t help feeling that the same may be true of this generation, too.

  9. Why do some poets get two poems?

  10. That’s an interesting one. I guess I start off looking for one poem from each submission, but some writers strong-arm me into taking more than one: the sheer merit of their work demands it. The default setting remains one each, but I can’t deny myself — and our readers — the pleasure of reading two excellent poems if they’re there on the page. It’s certainly got nothing to do with famous names or poetic reputations: just the quality of the work submitted.



  11. This year’s featured poet is Stephanie Christie. When did you first come across her and why did you decide to feature her?

  12. I think I first met Stephanie in the early 2000s. I’d seen her work in brief, and had in fact discussed it with the then editor, John Geraets. I didn’t really get it at the time, but he said that she lived in the same apartment block, and had shown him some work and he thought it at the very least worth taking a punt on. But then I heard her read at Poetry Live, and it was quite a revelation. I could see that she understood precisely what she was doing in fragmenting and breaking up her words in such an ostentatious and flamboyant way. I do understand why some readers continue to resist this L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E-influenced approach to poetry, but for myself I’ve long since concluded that her body of work has lasting value. To me, in fact, she’s one of New Zealand’s most unsung and undervalued poets.



  13. Not one but two competitions this year! Tell us about the Poetry New Zealand poetry competition winners announced in this edition.

  14. Yes, two quite different competitions. The first was the usual selection of the most outstanding poems submitted for each year’s issue. It’s an invidious choice, but when I first read Wes Lee’s poem ‘The Things She Remembers #1’, it completely transfixed me. When I heard it had already been accepted for publication elsewhere, I felt quite stricken. Luckily, though, the other magazine didn’t follow through, so I was happy to grab it for our pages. Brett Gartrell’s ‘After the principal calls’ was another strong contender for the top spot. Natalie Modrich’s ‘Retail’ is a bit of a change of pace, but it’s very amusing (it seems so to me, anyway). The winners this year are longer than in previous years: but I felt in each case that they needed that length to create the complex emotions their authors were dealing with.



  15. And give us an insight into the student competition entries and winners.

  16. The second competition, for school kids from Years 11, 12 and 13, was a real joy to judge. I chose a winner and three runners-up for each level, and I was spoiled for choice. The first prize winners from each have been included in the issue. There’s nothing naïve or half-formed about these poems, I have to say: they’re strong, confident work, by young writers who have a great deal to say. I hope that this success will help in encouraging each of them to keep writing: these are the kinds of young poets we will need in the future, I feel. I suppose that my personal favourite would have to be Aigagalefili Fepulea‘i-Tapua‘i’s passionate anthem ‘275 Love Letters to Southside’, but I like the slinky sensuality of Amberleigh Rose’s ‘Snake’s Tongue’ and the Joni Mitchell-like idealism of Kathryn Briggs’ ‘Earth is a Star to Someone’ very much also.





  17. Can you see any sort of shift in content between the time six years ago that you took the helm as editor and this edition?

  18. That’s an interesting question, too. Those first two issues look a bit tentative to me now. I hadn’t quite defined how my version of Poetry New Zealand would differ from Alistair Paterson’s — nor (for that matter) how the look of it might diverge from John Denny’s pared-back layouts. Nor did I realise at that stage that opening up the magazine to online submissions would encourage so many younger – as well as so many international — poets to send in work. The main difference, though, is that the poetics section, the essays and reviews, has grown much more varied and interesting — the poetry section was always strong.

  19. Are there poetry books on your beside table at present or something else? What are you reading at the moment?

  20. Well, at present I’m engaged in the rather lengthy task of rereading the greatest of the four classic Chinese novels: the Hung Lou Meng, or Red Chamber Dream (also known as The Story of the Stone). The Penguin translation, which I’m using this time — in preference to the only other complete version in English, from the Beijing Foreign Languages Publishing House — is in five volumes, so you can see that it’s quite an undertaking.

    As for poetry, I have to admit that my bedside book right now is Rudyard Kipling’s Complete Poems. I’d always meant to read him all the way through, and the appearance of the new Cambridge edition — a copy of which I found second-hand in a bookshop in Lyttelton — has encouraged me to do so at last. He’s a bit of an acquired taste to those of us brought up on pared-back Modernism, but he’s still surprisingly readable (and really no more reprehensible politically than T. S. Eliot or Ezra Pound ...)