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Joanna Preston

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Joanna Preston
Born1972 (age 51–52)
Sydney, Australia
Occupation
  • Poet
  • editor
  • creative writing tutor
CitizenshipAustralian and New Zealand
EducationUniversity of Glamorgan (MPhil)
Notable works
  • The Summer King (2008)
  • Tumble (2021)
Notable awardsMary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry (2022)
Website
joannapreston.com

Joanna Preston (born 1972) is an Australian poet, editor and creative writing tutor based in New Zealand. She has published two award-winning collections of poetry.

Life and career

Preston was born in Sydney in 1972,[1] and grew up in rural New South Wales. She moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1994. In 2001 she won first place in an international haiku competition judged by Jim Kacian.[2] From 2003 to 2006 she lived in England, where she obtained a MPhil in creative writing from the University of Glamorgan.[3]

Her first collection of poems, The Summer King, was published in 2008.[4] It won the inaugural Kathleen Grattan Award for the best original collection of poetry by a New Zealand or Pacific resident or citizen, and the Mary Gilmore Award for the best first collection by an Australian poet.[5][6] The poems in the collection were mainly produced during her studies at the University of Glamorgan, and its publication by Otago University Press was part of the Kathleen Grattan Award.[7] The Waikato Times described it as a "dazzling debut", with her poems "beautifully worked, insightful, emotionally gentle yet unsettling".[8]

She was the editor of takahē magazine from 2014 to 2016.[1][5] Together with James Norcliffe, she was the editor of an anthology of earthquake poems written shortly after the 2010 Canterbury earthquake and subsequent earthquakes, titled Leaving the Red Zone and published in 2016.[9][10] She has said that the experience of the Canterbury earthquakes led to her and her students writing many poems.[11][12] She has also edited a number of anthologies for the New Zealand Poetry Society.[13]

Her second collection of poems, Tumble, won the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.[4] Judge Saradha Koirala said of Preston's work: "Simply written, yet dramatic and powerfully eloquent, each poem in this book is a banger."[4] Reviewer Chris Tse had predicted it would win the top prize in advance of the ceremony, describing it as "a wide-ranging collection that traces the paths we take in life, and reflects on the experiences and wisdom we gain from our travels".[14]

Selected works

Poetry collections

As editor

  • Listening to the Rain: an anthology of Christchurch haiku and haibun (with Cyril Childs) (Small White Teapot Haiku Group, 2002)
  • A Savage Gathering (New Zealand Poetry Society, 2002)
  • The Infinity We Swim In (New Zealand Poetry Society, 2007)
  • Before the Sirocco (New Zealand Poetry Society, 2008)
  • Leaving the Red Zone: poems from the Canterbury earthquakes (with James Norcliffe) (Clerestory Press, 2016)
  • Broken Lines: In Charcoal (with Karen Zelas) (Pūkeko Publications, 2020)

References

  1. ^ a b "Biography". A Dark Feathered Art: Joanna Preston. 10 March 2009. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  2. ^ "NZ poets scoop awards". Waikato Times. 16 April 2001. ProQuest 313636043. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
  3. ^ "The Summer King". Otago University Press. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  4. ^ a b c Gates, Charlie (16 May 2022). "Vikings, astronauts and Lucifer: the stories about life that proved a winner for Canterbury poet Joanna Preston". The Press. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Earthrise". Best New Zealand Poems. 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  6. ^ "Canterbury writer Joanna Preston's eclectic collection". Radio New Zealand. 21 November 2021. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  7. ^ "Preston's a poet and now all of New Zealand knows it". The Press. 24 November 2008. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
  8. ^ Dornauf, Peter (27 November 2009). "Dazzling debut full of thrills". Waikato Times. ProQuest 313398488. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
  9. ^ "Joanna Preston and James Norcliffe – Canterbury Poems". Radio New Zealand. 28 February 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  10. ^ Matthews, Philip (30 March 2016). "Poetry from a broken city". Stuff. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  11. ^ Matthews, Philip (16 September 2011). "Bearing witness". The Press. ProQuest 894055761. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
  12. ^ Matthews, Philip (21 May 2011). ""The city I love, the city has fallen"". The Press. ProQuest 867967128. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
  13. ^ "Joanna Preston". New Zealand Poetry Society. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  14. ^ Woulfe, Catherine; Tse, Chris (2 March 2022). "Surprises ahoy: presenting the 2022 Ockham finalists". The Spinoff. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
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