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Issue 55 – February 2016 – QUEEN MARGARET CALLING
Budding Authors Impress
Nina recently graduated from Victoria University of
Wellington with an Honours degree in English Literature
and Chinese. She was Books Editor for Salient in 2014. Her
poetry and non-fiction (mainly about whales, books, or feminism)
have appeared in Turbine, Sweet Mammalian and Salient.
Nina’s first book Girls of the Drift was published in 2014. This
debut chapbook features poems about real and fictional women from
New Zealand history and literature, including Katherine Mansfield
and some of her creations, the first permanent lighthouse keeper, the
daughter of a whaler, poets Jessie Mackay and Blanche Baughan, and
our very own Queen Margaret College ghost.
In 2015, Nina taught a poetry masterclass for the National
Schools Poetry Award finalists. She is currently working on her next
book for her MA at the International Institute of Modern Letters.
She also makes poetry zines (hand-made, self-published mini
magazines).
It was tough for Nina to select winners from the high quality of
entries but she managed to select three that really stood out.
She commented on Caroline Kay’s piece, “The writer of this
piece is a keen observer with great poetic insight. Like two trains
passing each other in slow-motion, the writer slows time and leaves
us suspended in the mystery of the moment – echoing exactly how
we experience these moments in real life.”
Nina was impressed with Lexie Cantwell’s ability to conjure an
entire imaginary universe in only 500 words.
“With captivating details such as Solax’s ‘dragon-like wing’ and
the glowing ‘Data Vault’, I wanted to stay and get to know the heroine
and her monster. This writer has a boundless imagination and a gift
From poetry to prose, we had a number of outstanding entries in the 2015 Te Karere Creative
Writing Competition. The competition, which is run annually by the English Department, was
judged last year by writer, poet and Queen Margaret College Old Girl Nina Powles.
for character and story.”
Nina also described Rishika Khera’s poem, Aros Square as a
sophisticated poem full of colour and sound.
“The poet shows an impressive understanding of poetic form
and rhythm. Everything comes alive – trees dance, tulips shake –
making us feel like we are there with her in the dancing light of Aros
Square.”
Below are the full results of the Te Karere Creative Writing
Competition. The winning pieces were published in the 2015
edition of Te Karere.
Senior School
First Prize: Caroline Kay, Year 11, Late Night Trains
Highly Commended: Jiaru Lin, Year 11, Changing Heart
Isabella Moon, Year 11, My Grandad
Middle School
First Prize: Lexie Cantwell, Year 8, Monsters
Highly Commended: Olivia Morphew, Year 7, The Wrong Katherine
Lucia Jakich, Year 8, Everyone Knows Cold
Junior School
First Prize: Rishika Khera, Year 6, Aros Square
Highly Commended: Divya Srinivasa, Year 4, Feelings Of The Sea
Edith Bygraves, Year 3, The Waves Were
Rolling In
Nina reads stories from her book to Year 8 students.