The two staff winners of Writer 2024 offered two very different takes on the theme “A place of many firsts” – but both took the reader on journeys of self-discovery.
Tautaiolefue Brad Watson, the Tautiaki-Piki, Deputy Warden at Selwyn College, won the staff poetry section with Sounds, a poem which is a love letter to Samoa. Tiffany Young, who works on the outreach team at Ask Otago, won the staff fiction section with The Room was Lavender, a story based on her experiences and journey of seeking help.
Tautaiolefue Brad Watson
The pair was thrilled be chosen alongside the other category winners:
- Student poetry: George Gearry
- Student fiction: Teala Cavanagh
- Staff poetry: Tautaiolefue Brad Watson
- Staff fiction: Tiffany Young
- Alumni poetry: Jessica Leong
- Alumni fiction: Shona Geary
Read the full winning entries here.
Tautaiolefue says he has always wanted to enter this competition, and really connected with this year’s prompt.
“I was inspired by my ancestors, especially those that were the first to arrive in Samoa and it made me reflect more on some of my first times in Samoa, returning home as part of the Samoan diaspora in Aotearoa. For me, Samoa represents a place of many firsts when I think about her history and also my own personal lived experiences there.”
Tiffany Young
This year’s judge, 2024 Burns Fellow Mikaela Nyman, loved the strong sense of place Tautaiolefue evoked with his poem.
“This lyrical tight poem is a love letter to Sāmoa, ‘Soaking the soundscape shore / Salamasina sings / Four beats in time: Tafa’ifa / The signature of a Queen,’ while at the same time the poet sings of dislocation and alienation from their ancestry and culture,” Nyman says.
“The rhetorical shift comes with the double-edged sword of ‘roots’ and ‘routes’ that so many Pasifika people and migrants in Aotearoa would recognise. The language is gorgeous and specific.”
For Tiffany, the competition was a way to reintroduce herself to writing.
“Having a deadline helps me commit, it's always a bit easier to finish something when there's a little pressure. Additionally, I entered because I wanted to bring writing back into my life more consistently, and this competition seemed like a wonderful opportunity to do just that.”
Her story aims to show how simply expressing yourself can help you find the strength to face your challenges, or at least make the burden feel lighter.
“As a person of colour, it can be hard to trust that someone from a different background could truly understand what you've been through. That doubt can make you question whether they can genuinely help. But even with those uncertainties, the act of sharing with someone whose role is to listen can be incredibly powerful and healing.”
Mikaela says these ideas came together beautifully in Young’s story.
“From an intriguing start with a therapist (‘But meaning well and doing well are two different things’), it grows into an emotionally charged narrative with hard-hitting one-liners. The reader is guided by a skilled writer who knows how to handle pace, tension, surprising reveals and, yes, tenderness.”
This is the fifth year the competition has been offered – and it once again drew high quality entries from all of the University’s campuses, and from around Aotearoa New Zealand and the world.
Mikaela says the thoughtful and varied stories and poems demonstrate the wealth of creative talent in the University of Otago whānau.
“This year’s competition theme, ‘A place of many firsts,’ invited an abundance of personal reflections and coming-of-age narratives in both poetry and prose. The subject matter varied immensely, traversing natural disasters, ancestors, encounters with the past and with one’s own cultural heritage, personal growth and failure, and meetings with eccentric local characters. I wish I could have picked more than one winner per category.”
The competition was established in 2019 as part of the University’s 150th celebrations. It is organised by University Publications Editor Lisa Dick and English and Linguistics Programme Senior Teaching Fellow Nicola Cummins and supported by University Book Shop, Otago University Press, Dunedin City of Literature, Otago Access Radio, and the Otago Daily Times.