Top from left: Sir
James Wallace, Vice Chancellor Professor Stuart McCutcheon, The University of
Auckland
Front from left: Tessa
Priest (2013 scholarship winner), Liz Langbrown (2013 scholarship winner),
Margie Thomson (2012 Sir James Wallace Masters in Creative Writing Award
winner)
Margie Thomson, 2012 Masters in Creative Writing graduate, was announced
the inaugural award winner, with 2013 Masters students Tessa Priest and Liz
Langbrown announced the scholarship winners.
“I was delighted to present these awards to three very deserving women,
and look forward to hearing both of their successes, and that of future
graduates from The University of Auckland’s Masters of Creative
Writing. The University holds a strong history of powerful literary voices
impacting both nationally and internationally,” says Sir James
Wallace.
Award winner Margie Thomson was deeply grateful and
appreciative of the prize.
“It is a great honour to be the first recipient of such
a prestigious award. The Masters in Creative Writing has left me with a
massive manuscript which needs to be re-thought and rewritten. My goal is to
complete a second draft by the end of the year so the $5000 from the Sir James
Wallace award is greatly appreciated – I will feel a lot less guilty giving
time to my manuscript,” says Margie
Margie hails from a journalism background having worked for the NZ
Herald for many years as both features writer and then books editor for Canvas
magazine, as books editor for the Herald on Sunday and Next magazine, and most
recently for the Dominion Post's Your Weekend magazine. Now a
contract writer to various international publishers, Margie has written books
for a variety of New Zealand celebrities.
“Writing fiction is a very different proposition from journalism and
contract writing.
“The Masters in Creative Writing provided me with a strong context to
just keep on going and get the words down. Without such a
structure there is no deadline, and no rein on perfectionism and self doubt.
The MCW was tremendously helpful in this way. It is a ‘gift economy’ -
you learn from talking about and critiquing each others' work,” says Margie.
The awards aim to encourage developing writers with high potential into
the Masters in Creative Writing, and to provide the opportunity for the
top-performing student to spend the months needed to turn a course project into
a publishable book. The two fees scholarships were awarded to students with the
best portfolios in the 2013 intake, and the $5,000 award to the student who
submitted the best end-of-year work for the 2012 programme.
Distinguished Professor Brian Boyd says he speaks for
his Department of English and for the University in welcoming these awards as a
way of boosting the talent already in Auckland and of drawing still more to the
city.
“Margie Thomson has been well known as a journalist in
Auckland and has also been a ghostwriter for Auckland publishers. How wonderful
that her award will help her turn what she learned here as a creative writer
into a work of fiction in her own name.
“And how splendid that Liz Langbrown, just arrived in
Auckland from Wellington, and Tessa Priest, just arrived here from Whanganui,
fulfill the aim of the scholarship, to draw talent from across the country, in
its very first year. As both mothers of children just getting old enough to
allow them more writing time to themselves, they’ll appreciate this support
enormously,” says Professor Boyd.
The Masters of Creative Writing adds further strength
to The University of Auckland English Department, which has fostered talent
from Allen Curnow, C. K. Stead and Maurice Gee through to Toa Fraser, Glenn
Colquhoun and Selina Tusitala Marsh.
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