Montana Award winning poet to be Victoria University’s 2010 Writer in Residence

Poet Jenny Bornholdt will be the 2010 Writer in Residence at Victoria University.

Earlier this year Bornholdt won the Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry for her latest collection The Rocky Shore. The book is made up of six long poems that together form a moving autobiographical essay.

“The content and emotional range of the collection is remarkable—from reflections on the death of the poet’s father to the day-to-day details of ordinary domestic life,” says Director of Victoria’s International Institute of Modern Letters, Professor Bill Manhire.

The book was hailed by the Montana judges as a breakthrough in Bornholdt’s work—and also as something significantly new in New Zealand poetry generally.

“She uses speech as we know it in everyday life, not lifted into the poetic, but made poetry by all that it is allowed to contain,” the judges said.

Bornholdt plans to work on a new volume of poetry while she is at Victoria, and also aims to compile an anthology of short poems by New Zealand writers. She will be hosted by Victoria’s International Institute of Modern Letters.

Professor Manhire says he is delighted about Bornholdt’s appointment.

“She is one of the most generous poets I know. The students who come to study with us will find it richly rewarding to know that she is working and writing just along the corridor. It is going to be very exciting to see where her poetry goes next.”

Bornholdt will take up her appointment on 1 February 2010. The position is jointly funded by Victoria University and Creative New Zealand.

For more information contact the International Institute of Modern Letters on (04) 463 6854