Charlie Ward of Wellington has won the inaugural Great New Zealand Digi-Poem Competition with his audio-visual version of Paekakariki poet Apirana Taylor's poem "Hinemoa's Daughter". Convenor of judges, Michele Leggott, said his flash animation "achieves a balance between the visual, textual and auditory components of Apirana Taylor's poem."

Watch the winning digi-poem.Charlie Ward of Wellington has won the inaugural Great New Zealand Digi-Poem Competition with his audio-visual version of Paekakariki poet Apirana Taylor's poem "Hinemoa's Daughter". Convenor of judges, Michele Leggott, said his flash animation "achieves a balance between the visual, textual and auditory components of Apirana Taylor's poem."

Watch the winning digi-poem."His composition follows Taylor's evocative performance with nuanced images and typographical overlays that surprise and delight the eye as the poet speaks."

The other finalists were:

• Jody Lloyd of Trillion in Christchurch: "On Originality" by Bill Manhire
• Paul Homeboy of Christchurch: "Instructions for the Consumption of your Humanitarian Food Package" by Fiona Farrell
• Helen Sword of Auckland: "Hinemoa's Daughter" by Apirana Taylor

The Great NZ Digi-Poem Competition, created to celebrate Montana Poetry Day by the nzepc in association with Auckland University Press, sought the best digital transformations of poems by six well-known New Zealand poets.

The competition poems were drawn from AUP's Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance, the second of AUP's popular CD-with-book anthologies of poets in performance.

The winner will receive an iPod Nano donated by the University of Auckland Library and books from Auckland University Press.

All the shortlisted poems can be viewed on the NZ Electronic Poetry website.

31/7/07