The student winners of Writer 2024, Teala Cavanagh (student fiction) and George Gearry (student poetry).
A poignant poem which takes the reader through the residential Red Zone after the Christchurch earthquakes has won the student poetry section of Writer 2024, the University’s annual creative writing competition.
George Gearry, who is in the final year of his BA majoring in Psychology and English, was inspired to write “It’s all grass now” after watching a music video for “Bug Eyed” by this dog, one of his favourite Ōtautahi bands.
The video was shot in Christchurch's residential Red Zone – a swathe of land in the eastern suburbs of Christchurch alongside the Avon River which experienced severe damage in the 2010 and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes. More than 8,000 houses were demolished, including the one Gearry’s dad grew up in.
“The video reminded me of visiting his childhood home after the earthquakes, shortly before the house was demolished. The poem is about that visit — how I felt back then and how I feel now.”
Gearry says he’s thrilled to be named 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.
This year’s competition judge, 2024 Burns Fellow Mikaela Nyman, was impressed by the poem’s sound and rhythm, which she says is like an “edgy rap with lots of alliteration and assonance”.
“It takes us through the Red Zone after the Christchurch earthquake, ‘out of the dying-almost-dead zone’, with the poem’s narrator remembering ‘I was all rugby / socks and Subway’ while watching his father ‘watch his old house.’ Then they headed west towards the mountains.”
Gearry says he’s very grateful to be named among the winners.
“Thank you to the organisers of the competition, and to everybody who read the poem and gave me feedback. I'm also grateful that my dad took me to see his old house that day.”
The student fiction section winner Teala Cavanagh was also inspired by a family member – her
grandmother, who was a solo mother who spent a lot of time in her garden.
Nyman says Cavanagh’s story grabbed her from the start “with its sparse, beautiful language that evoked a certain mood and weariness.”
“It narrates the struggles – physically, financially, socially and emotionally – of a first-time single mother, who is more in tune with gardens than the cliquey community of ‘new mums with their high-dollar pushchairs.’ This is a tale of honesty and courage with no ready answers, yet it offers a glimmer of hope at the end.”
Cavanagh, a first-year BSc student, majoring in Chemistry and Neuroscience says she honoured to be named among the winners.
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.
Nyman 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.