Montana Poetry Day 2005
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New Zealand's national day of poetry, Montana Poetry Day, 21st of July 06 is a celebration of this country's unique and vibrant poetic voice - whether it is odes, myths and legends, serious social commentary or just plain good fun. Each year on Montana Poetry Day thousands of people gather throughout the country to listen, recite, read and participate in poetry related events and activities. Check out your local event at:
Bill Manhire has won the Poetry category in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2006, with his collection Lifted. New Zealand's national day of poetry, Montana Poetry Day, 21st of July 06 is a celebration of this country's unique and vibrant poetic voice - whether it is odes, myths and legends, serious social commentary or just plain good fun. Each year on Montana Poetry Day thousands of people gather throughout the country to listen, recite, read and participate in poetry related events and activities. Check out your local event at:
Bill Manhire has won the Poetry category in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2006, with his collection Lifted.Bill Manhire has won the Poetry category in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2006, with his collection Lifted. The news was released this morning on the dawn of Montana Poetry Day.
"Lifted," says Emeritus Professor Lawrence Jones, convenor of the judging panel, "is a short but packed book, the work of a major poet who continues to develop his art and his vision in ways that are consonant with what he has done before but that at the same time surprise and gratify us."
Lifted was selected from 32 collections of poetry published in 2005 and submitted for the awards. Professor Jones went on to say that 2005 was a year when many of New Zealand's top poets - amongst them the two other finalists, Anne Kennedy and Brian Turner - published not only a volume of poetry, but one that showed them to be performing at the top of their form.
Bill Manhire said that he was delighted to win the poetry category. "I also feel very lucky. New Zealand poetry has entered one of its great periods in the last few years, and some astonishing books are being published."
Bill Manhire heads the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University, Wellington and directs their prestigious creative writing programme. He has published many books of poetry and also a number of volumes of fiction, and has over the years, collected many awards and
accolades for his poetry. In 2005 Manhire was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and he was named as one of the five Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureates.
Lifted, published by Victoria University Press, goes on to be judged alongside the winner of the Fiction category for the ultimate prize, the Deutz Medal for Fiction or Poetry. The winner will be announced at a awards ceremony in Auckland at Sky City on Monday 24 July. Bill Manhire will be
presented with a prize of $5,000 as winner of the Poetry category at this gala dinner.
The principal sponsors of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards are Montana and Creative New Zealand. The awards are managed by Booksellers New Zealand and supported by Book Publishers Association of New Zealand, the New Zealand Society of Authors and Book Tokens (NZ) Ltd.