Kathleen Grattan Award

Auckland poet Kathleen Grattan, a journalist and former editor of the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, died in 1990. A member of the Titirangi Poets, her work was published in Landfall and other volumes including Premier Poets, a collection from the World Poetry Society. Her daughter Jocelyn Grattan, who also worked for the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, shared her mother’s love of literature. She has generously left Landfall a bequest with which to establish an award in memory of Kathleen Grattan.

About the Competition

This biennial award is for an original collection of poems, or one long poem, by a New Zealand or Pacific permanent resident or citizen. Individual poems in the collection can have been previously published, but the collection as a whole should be unpublished. Entries are accepted until 31 July of the award year and must be either received or postmarked by this date. The result will be announced in the November issue of Landfall, and the winner will receive $10,000 and a year’s subscription to Landfall.

The award will next be granted in 2023. Landfall/Otago University Press welcomes entries for the 2023 award any time before 31 July 2023.

Conditions of Entry

Entries will be a collection of poems or one long poem.
Minimum submission length is 20 pages. Formatting, font size etc is your choice.
Entries will be unpublished, original work. Note, it is the collection as a whole that should not have been previously published. Individual poems in the collection can have been published previously.
Entrants will be New Zealand or Pacific permanent residents or citizens.
Only one entry per person will be accepted. Please send a cover letter with your personal contact details and two hard copies of your manuscript (your name is not to appear on this).
The Judge will assess the merits of submissions and reserve the right not to award a prize.
No correspondence with the Judge will be entered into.
Landfall/Otago University Press reserves the right of first publication of the winning entry. All entries will be considered for publication.
The name and photograph of the winning writer may be used by Landfall and/or its publishers for publicity purposes.
No present employees of Otago University Press or present editors of Landfall are eligible to enter.

How to Enter

Submit two hard copies of your manuscript (note: your name must not appear on these). Your copies will not be returned. Please consider the environment and avoid using plastic binding, sleeves or covers.
Include a cover letter with your personal contact details: name, postal address, email address and telephone number.
Ensure the title of the submission is on both the cover letter and the manuscript itself.
Address entries to: The Kathleen Grattan Award, Otago University Press, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand. Courier address is Otago University Press, 533 Castle St, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.
For further information, email landfall@otago.ac.nz, or call Otago University Press on (03) 479-4155.

Award winners

Landfall 242 (November 2021) announced Auckland poet Michael Steven as the winner of the Kathleen Grattan Award for Poetry 2021 for his collection ‘Night School’. Judge David Eggleton says: ‘The poems in this collection read and feel as if they have been quarried out of silence and watchfulness and long contemplation of the dark night of the soul … [Steven] writes like someone fleeing an infernal and damned city, one about to be razed by a vengeful Old Testament God, and yet he bears lyrical and eloquent witness.’ Night School will be published in 2022.

Landfall 238 (November 2019) announced Philip Armstrong as the winner with his work Sinking Lessons. Judge Jenny Bornholdt called it ‘an accomplished, engaging collection that displays literary skill and a sharp intelligence at work’. This book was published by Otago University Press in 2020.

Landfall 234 (November 2017) announced Alison Glenny as the winner with her Antarctic-focused The Farewell Tourist. Judge Bill Manhire said of the work, ‘the manuscript makes the reader work, and gives in return a kind of droll melancholy’. This book was published by Otago University Press in 2018.

Landfall 230 (November 2015) announced Michael Harlow as the winner with his work Nothing for it but to Sing. The judge was Emma Neale, who described the poems as ‘small detonations that release deeply complex stories of psychological separations and attractions, of memory and desire … the work is sequinned by sound …’ This book was published by Otago University Press in 2016.

Landfall 226 (November 2013) announced Siobhan Harvey as the winner of the Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award with her collection Cloudboy. Judge Jeffrey Paparoa Holman commented: ‘Harvey’s work came through for me because it seemed to come out of life itself as well as literature and asked things of the reader. This is a powerful and brave collection, exploring the world of autism through a mother’s eyes, using the world of clouds as both simile and metaphor.’ This book was published by Otago University Press in 2014.

Landfall 222 (2011) announced Emma Neale as the winner of the Kathleen Grattan Award 2011. Her book, The Truth Garden, was published in July 2012.
The judge of the 2011 competition was Poet Laureate Cilla McQueen, who commented: ‘The breath held or expelled in wonder, frustration or delight energises Emma Neale’s writing.’

Landfall 220 (2010) announced the 2010 winner of the Kathleen Grattan Award, judged by Vincent O’Sullivan: This City by Jennifer Compton. Compton’s volume ‘sustains a questing, warmly sceptical mind’s engagement with wherever it is, whatever it takes in, and carries the constant drive to say it right,’ says O’Sullivan.

Landfall 218 (2009) announced the 2009 winner of the Kathleen Grattan Award, judged by Ian Wedde: Stunning Debut of the Repairing of a Life by the late Leigh Davis. This book was published by Otago University Press in July 2010.

Landfall 216 (2008) announced the inaugural winner of this award, judged by Fleur Adcock: The Summer King by Joanna Preston. This collection was published by Otago University Press on Montana NZ Poetry Day in 2009 and subsequently won the Australian Mary Gilmore A