At The Press, Christchurch Writers’ Festival 2012 on Sunday 2nd September, Riemke was honoured to have been awarded the, “Lauris Edmond Memorial Award” in recognition of distinguished contribution in New Zealand poetry.
“The selection panel noted her unassuming and long standing mentorship and support for other writers, both as a teacher and an editor. The outstanding merit of her poetry is recognized in New Zealand and internationally.”
F.Kidman 2012, Beattie’s Book Blog
Media Release
9th September, 2012
Auckland poet honoured
Auckland poet Riemke Ensing is the recipient of the Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for Poetry, a prize which is presented every two years in recognition of a distinguished contribution to New Zealand poetry.
The award, jointly funded by the New Zealand Poetry Society and The Friends of the Lauris Edmond Memorial Award was presented at the Christchurch Writers Festival.
Established in 2002 the award is named after New Zealand poet and writer Lauris Edmond who published many volumes of poetry, a novel, an autobiography and several plays before her death in 2000. Her Selected Poems (1984) won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize.
Born in the Netherlands, Riemke Ensing arrived in New Zealand in 1951, first coming to attention as editor of the first New Zealand anthology of women poets, Private Gardens, in 1977. She has published numerous collections, often engaging with art, politics and other poets, and her selected poems were published in 2000 as Talking Pictures.
Ensing is a former recipient of the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship.
The selection panel for the prize noted Ensing’s unassuming and long standing mentorship and support for other writers, both as a teacher and an editor and that the outstanding merit of her poetry is recognised in New Zealand and internationally.
Ensing says receiving the prize is an honour, an acknowledgement of her work to date and a trigger of renewed energy and enthusiasm for poetry. It will support her current project, a collection of poems about loss and grief titled A Great Wave.
Ensing says it is particularly important for her to receive an award named after Lauris Edmond.
“She was accomplished, smart and achieved an amazing amount in her lifetime. She was, and still is, a significant and important voice in New Zealand literature and it is fitting that there is an award in her name.”
The Canterbury Poets’ Collective was instrumental in the establishment of the award and, it is presented every two years at The Press Christchurch Writers Festival’s ‘5 Poets Reading”.
The inaugural recipient was Bill Sewell, who received the award posthumously in 2003 with Brian Turner accepting the prize on his behalf. Subsequent recipients have been Jenny Bornhboldt, Dinah Hawken, Brian Turner and Diana Bridge, the latter receiving the award in Wellington after the September 2012 earthquake resulted in the cancellation of the Christchurch Writers Festival.
The Award is jointly administered by the New Zealand Poetry Society and the Friends of the Lauris Edmond Award, chaired by Lauris’s daughter Frances Edmond.
Further Information:
Riemke Ensing
Tel +64-9-534 5152 Click to email Riemke
Laurice Gilbert, National Coordinator, NZ Poetry Society Email info@poetrysociety.org.nz