The Caselberg Trust International Poetry Prize 2019 Judged by Dinah Hawken

By Caselberg Trust | Posted:

Information for Entrants

The Caselberg Trust is calling for entries for the 2019 Caselberg Trust International Poetry Competition. Now in its 8th year, the Trust is delighted to announce that Dunedin’s finest book shop – the University Book Shop (www.unibooks.co.nz) is supporting the poetry prize for the first time this year, and will also host our awards night again this year to coincide with the publication of Landfall 238 Spring 2019. Thank you to everyone at the University Book Shop for your ongoing support.

Dinah Hawken was born in Hawera in 1943 and now lives in Paekakariki. She has worked as a physiotherapist, social worker, mother, student counsellor, and creative writing teacher at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University. She began writing poetry in her late thirties and her first collection, It has no sound and is blue, won the 1987 Commonwealth Poetry Prize for best first book. Since then she has had seven more collections published by Victoria University Press, and four have been short-listed for the New Zealand book awards. Her latest book, There is no harbour, was published in February 2019.

The competition opens Saturday 1 June and closes on Wednesday 31 July. Entries are judged blind. First Prize is $500 (plus one-week stay at the Caselberg house at Broad Bay, Dunedin). Second Prize is $250, and there are up to 5 Highly-Commended awards (no monetary prizes).

The first- and second-placed poems will be published in the Spring issue of Landfall, and all winning and highly-commended entries will appear on the Caselberg Trust website (copyright remaining with the authors).

Entry fee: $20 for up to four poems from any one entrant. Payment may be made to any branch of the ANZ National Bank to the credit of the Caselberg Trust, a/c no. 06-0901-0353698-00, giving your name as the payer reference; or by cheque made out to ‘Caselberg Trust’, or in cash.

Note – entry fees must be paid prior to submitting your entry, and where payments are not received, poems will not be submitted for judging

  • Poems must be the original work of the entrant, previously unpublished, and not submitted elsewhere.

  • Poems must be no more than 40 lines in length.
  • Entries must be typewritten, and each poem should be laid out on a separate page (or separate word document if attached via email). Entries typed into the body of an email will not be accepted and will be returned to the author. Any style or subject will be considered.
  • The poet’s name must not appear on the typescript.

Entries may be submitted by e-mail to poetry@caselbergtrust.org or post to Caselberg Poetry Prize,

PO Box 71, Portobello, Dunedin 9014, NZ

Along with your entries, whether by e-mail or as hard copy, please provide your name and postal address and phone number, and your e-mail address (for receipt of your entry fee when this is received). If you have no e-mail address, and you want receipt of entry please send a stamped addressed envelope.

No entries received after Wednesday 31 July 2019 will be considered.

Winners only will be notified of their success. A copy of the Judge’s report will be posted on the Caselberg Trust website www.caselbergtrust.org, and as always, the Judge’s decisions will be final, and no correspondence will be entered into. 


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