In this winter NZ poets’ edition we’re featuring the winning poems from our 2016 poetry competition. Frankie McMillan’s My mother and great aunt laughing like trees, Gill Ward’s What I forgot to steal, Jillian Sullivan’s June and Sarah Manning’s Barefoot walking. There is also a haiku, a poem for children and more…….
The winter cards will be posted or hand delivered to medical centres, rest homes, hospices and prisons this week. Look out for them – they’d love to be read!
Introducing our winter poets
Felicity
Felicity Cutten was born in Australia but has lived in Canterbury for over thirty years. She is a published science writer and illustrator and a member of the South Island Writers Association.
Cherry
Cherry Hill is a retired teacher of Chinese and Japanese languages. She is a partner on a sheep and deer farm on the edge of Lake Ellesmere/TeWaihora.
Jan
Jan Hutchison lives in Christchurch and has published three collections of poetry, the latest being – The Happiness of Rain. She is published in Australia, England, and New Zealand.
Greg
Greg Judkins has been practising as a GP in a low socio-economic suburb of South Auckland for a very long time. For most of that time he has also been involved in post graduate medical education for GPs. He has one wife, three children and six grandchildren, is a keen cyclist, and enjoys dabbling in a little creative writing in the form of poetry and short fiction.
Sarah
Sarah Manning – writes from her house overlooking Dunedin harbour and she draws on nature for her inspiration.
Frankie
Frankie McMillan is a New Zealand short story writer and poet. She is the author of ‘The Bag Lady’s Picnic and other stories’ ( Shoal Bay Press) and two poetry collections: ‘Dressing for the Cannibals’ and ‘There are no horses in heaven’. (Canterbury University Press). In 2005 she was awarded the Creative New Todd Bursary. In 2008 and 2009 her work was selected for Best NZ Fiction anthologies. In 2013 and 2015 her poems were selected for Best New Zealand Poems (online, Victoria University). In 2014 she held the Ursula Bethell writing residency at Canterbury University. Other awards include winner of the New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition in 2009 and winner of the New Zealand Flash Fiction Competition in 2013 and 2015. Her latest book, ‘My Mother and the Hungarians and other small fictions’ (Canterbury University Press) will be launched in August, 2016. Frankie currently teaches at the Hagley Writers’ Institute in Christchurch.
Jillian
Jillian Sullivan grew up in the Wairarapa, and now lives in Central Otago, NZ. She is published in a wide variety of genres and teaches writing in NZ, and in America each year for the Highlights Foundation. Her awards include the Highlights Fiction Award in America for short stories, the Tom Fitzgibbon Award, and the Kathleen Grattan Prize for poetry. A mother of five and grandmother of eight, she recently spent six months full time building her strawbale house in the Ida Valley. Her forthcoming book, a memoir of building the house, and a new life down south, is due out with Potton and Burton, Spring 2016. www.jilliansullivan.co.nz
Brian
Brian Turner – see https://bellamysatfive.wordpress.com/the-poets/brian-turner/
Gill
Gill Ward lives on the Kapiti Coast. Her poetry, scripts and short stories have appeared in anthologies, magazines, literary publications and on National Radio. Now retired from teaching, Gill writes an online poetry column for the Kapiti Independent News and leads a U3A course on contemporary New Zealand Poetry. For the last seven years she has organised the Kapiti poetry café monthly event ‘Poets to the People.’ Her collection Poetic explanations (Kupu Press) was published in 2011.She won second prize in the 2013 Takahe Short Story Competition and was one of three joint prize winners in the 2013 Print Reality poetry competition, highly commended in 2015 Flash Fiction awards.
If you’ve enjoyed reading the Poems in the Waiting Room cards please consider making a donation here. All money goes towards our printing and postage costs. Thank you -Ruth.
Poems in the Waiting Room (NZ) 