Winners Announced at Virtual Literary Awards
Hawera High School award recipients from left to right - Krishay Lal (Secondary School Short Story 1st & 3rd), Jordan Dawson (Secondary School Short Story 2nd), Bethany Gyde (Secondary School Poetry Commended), and Jacob Taylor (Secondary School Poetry 1st)
The Lysaght-Watt Trust Ronald Hugh Morrieson Literary Awards were held on the evening of Thursday 21 October via the virtual platform Zoom.
This year’s judges, Eileen Merriman, Vaughan Rapatahana and Matt Rilkoff, shared their thoughts on the overall calibre of entries, along with comments about each winning piece of work. The judges noted the works were very grounded in the South Taranaki landscape and, in some instances, brought Morrieson right back into the room.
The winners for this year are:
Short Story
Secondary School Section
First Place: “Lost in a Void” - Krishay Lal – Hāwera High School
Second Place: “Theatricals” - Jordan Dawson – Hāwera High School
Third Place: “The Jigsaw Puzzle” - Krishay Lal – Hāwera High School
Open Section
First Place: “Dear Eleanor” - Rolland McKellar - Ōkato
Second Place:“Holiday in Cambodia” - Bruce Finer - Hāwera
Third Place:“Dale the Destroyer” - Bruce Finer - Hāwera
Poetry
Open Section
First Place: “Hanging on a Wire” – Stuart Greenhill - Stratford
Second Place: “Pukengahu Andy” – Stuart Greenhill - Stratford
Third Place: “Lonely Sailors” – Mikaela Nyman – New Plymouth
Commended:
“Requiem for my Father” - Germana Lewis - Hāwera
“Campsite 18” - Kate Byrne – New Plymouth
“Deliverance” - Rosemary Joyce - Manaia
“Date with Sisyphus” - Mikaela Nyman – New Plymouth
“Karanga te ra whakatuwhera i te waharoa ki rangatapu pa” - Dave Lee - Hāwera
“Fibres, Feathers, Earth & Sky” - Maakere Edwards - Hāwera
“Street Life” - Willow Noir - Hāwera
“Taranaki Weka” - Stuart Greenhill - Stratford
“The scream of the Butterfly” - Koren Miller - Hāwera
“Till spring” - Michaela Stoneman - Pātea
Secondary School Section
First Place: “Love, Actually” - Jacob Taylor – Hāwera High School
Second Place: “Society of Filo Pastry Girls” - Lexi McQuaig – Ōpunakē High School
Third Place: “Unannounced Arrival” - Aria Brophy – Ōpunakē High School
Commended:
“The Shell rolls over with the Tide” - Anne Larcom – Taranaki Diocesan School for Girls
“Te Maunga o Taranaki” - Bethany Gyde – Hāwera High School
Research Article
First Place: “The Sweet Smell of Success” - Thea Irys Lacanaria – Sacred Heart Girls’ College
Second Place: “Life is Music” - Samuel Salisbury – New Plymouth Boys’ High School
Third Place: “Dennis Crow: Success and Service” – Neo Hatcher – New Plymouth Boys’ High School
A copy of the finalist’s winning entries can be found in the 2021 Ronald Hugh Morrieson Literary Awards Finalist Book. You can order a copy from any South Taranaki LibraryPlus for $5.
Additional information:
The Awards, sponsored by the Lysaght Watt Trust, honour the work of one of New Zealand’s most preeminent authors, Ronald Hugh Morrieson (1922 – 1972). Morrieson wrote four novels: The Scarecrow (1963), Came a Hot Friday (1964), Predicament (published in 1975) and his only contemporary novel Pallet on the Floor (1976). All have been adapted for the cinema, the only New Zealand writer to have acquired this achievement. Two short stories were published posthumously, in 1974; Cross My Heart and Cut My Throat and The Chimney.
Further information about the Judges can be found here: http://www.rhmorriesonawards.com/the-judges.html
