National Schools Poetry Award winner
Haro Lee, a Yr 12 St Cuthbert's College student, has won this year's award.
A poem that explores the emotional complexity of sibling relationships has been selected by judge and current Poet Laureate Ian Wedde as the winner in the National Schools Poetry Award 2012.
Haro Lee, from Auckland’s St Cuthbert’s College, won with her poem ‘Passive Aggressive’, the story of one sibling saying goodbye to another who is leaving for college overseas. Wedde praised the poem’s ‘understated poignancy and many deft subtleties’, and admired the way it ‘scores the rhythms of speech with well-judged breaks or emphases’.
Ten poems were shortlisted from almost 300 entries this year. Wedde found judging the Award ‘a wonderful experience – 290 (and some) poems from the energy cauldron of young poets hell-bent on tackling everything.’
The National Schools Poetry Award is a free annual competition open to Yr 12 and 13 students around New Zealand. The Award is organised by the International Institute of Modern Letters with the support of Creative New Zealand.
Read the winning and shortlisted poems
Download the Judge's report pdf157KB and press release pdf252KB