Joanna Preston: Tasmanaut Poet
A last minute change of venue for tomorrow night’s Counter/Culture Political poetry event – we’re heading east, to Xchange, at 376 Wilsons Road. Apparently they do awesome dumplings. (And I’m told that this is not a euphemism.) I’ve got three poems lined up for tomorrow night, all from the new book. I’ll make a final …
On Thursday night I was at the monthly meeting of the South Island Writers' Association, to present the results of the Jean Ruddenklau Poetry Trophy for 2012. It was the first time I'd managed to deliver judgement in person, and was an … interesting experience. The competition itself was quite tricky to judge. Usually you …
Continue reading "Poetry, judgement, and the Oh God of Earthquakes"
Well it's all done and dusted now. Results have been handed out, winners cheered and others given their "short, helpful comments" from the judge. Who were the winners? (Drumroll please) 1st: Elizabeth Robertson, "My father is never lonely", Runner-up: Shirley Eng, "A Bicycle sonnet", Commended: Janice Healey, "Water! Right!", and Mary Fitzgerald, "Post Spring Song". …
Well I'm making my final choices in the SIWA sonnet competition. It's been quite interesting. Encouraging in some ways, discouraging in others. My worry when I first sat down with the packet of entries was that I would be confronted with entry after entry in stilted, forced rhyme. Or bad pastiches of Keats, or Donne. …
Continue reading "Sonnets for SIWA – part II: the deliberation"
I've been asked to judge a sonnet competition for the South Island Writer's Association, which should be fun. But being asked got me thinking about what exactly makes a sonnet. Where are the borders, the limits? I covered this briefly with my Polytech class (with varying amounts of success). We had a look at sonnets …
A Dark Feathered Art 