Ōtaki author Joanna Cho has received the $3000 first prize within the 2025 Surrey Resort author residency award, introduced stay on air simply earlier than 2pm right now by Jesse Mulligan on his RNZ Afternoons present.
And Lord of the Rings actor Bruce Hopkins, who captured the general public creativeness these previous few weeks of the competition when he made the shortlist for his venture, documenting the useless animals he photographed when climbing the 3000km Te Araora trial, is among the many runners-up.
Judges chosen seven writers from a shortlist of 10 within the 2025 Surrey Resort Writers Residency Award held in affiliation with Newsroom and beneficiant patrons, Jude and Dick Frizzell.
First: Joanna Cho of Ōtaki, who wins $3000 and per week’s lodging on the Surrey, a tremendous lodge in Gray Lynn, Auckland, to work on a group of poems about new motherhood.
Second: Mereana Latimer (Newlands), who wins $1000 and 5 nights on the Surrey, to work on a novel set within the Cook dinner Islands.
Third place, equal: Jane Arthur (Wellington) wins $500 and 4 nights on the Surrey to work on her novel a couple of girl going through redundancy, and Leeanne O’Brien (Piha) wins the identical issues to work on her assortment of quick tales. Arthur received the prize for finest first guide poetry on the 2020 Ockham awards, and O’Brien received the Sargeson prize for finest quick story of 2021.
Runners-up, tied: three writers don’t obtain a purple cent however qualify for 3 nights on the Surrey plus a Sunday roast in the event that they keep within the weekends. They’re Liv Sisson (Auckland), creator of the bestselling Fungi of Aotearoa, who needs to write down a guide about moths; David Ciurlionis (Auckland), who needs to work on a post-apocalypse novel set at a fortified pā on the maunga of the Auckland volcanic area; and the legendary Bruce Hopkins (Auckland), he who has the dead-critters venture.
Grand winner Joanna Cho was born in Daegu, South Korea, studied English and philosophy on the College of Auckland, received the Biggsy poetry prize as a pupil on the IIML, and was shortlisted for finest first guide of poems on the 2023 Ockhams for her debut assortment Individuals Particular person (Te Herenga Waka College Press). It completely must have received. Justice is restored together with her Surrey victory.
Her daughter Plum – aw! – was born in February. She wrote in her entry, “I’ve been discovering motherhood very inspiring and have been writing poems and notes on my telephone throughout Plum’s naps … Typically I get the prospect to take a seat at my laptop computer however principally I’m holding Plum all day after which we each sleep round 7 (she doesn’t sleep nicely so I take what I can get). It might be actually cool to have the ability to dedicate time to writing and have my mum babysit.”
In second place, Mereana Latimer wrote in her entry, “With help from a mentor this 12 months, with because of Ngā Kaituhi Māori New Zealand Society of Authors and Emma Hislop, I’ve made progress and have the bones of a primary draft of a novel. The story I’m writing goals to mirror that I come from an extended line of unbelievably cussed and utterly unhinged Cook dinner Islands ladies, who I’d like to see extra of in print. I suppose it’s additionally my try at posthumous solidarity with the great-aunt whose demise my household coated up and whose unmarked grave we solely discovered after we went to bury my Nana.”
In third place, Jane Arthur wrote, “My novel is about Holly, who lives in Wellington and is going through redundancy. I’m describing it as a ‘coming-of-middle-age’ novel. Holly has had to return to her hometown when her dad has an accident, and so she faces a type of reckoning of: argh, god, what’s my life?”
In tied third place, Leeanne O’Brien emailed, “I’m working in direction of a group of tales that I hope to submit for publication. They embody a narrative a couple of girl who, every Friday at 5pm, meets a person on the Wellington prepare station the place they fuck within the vandal-proof bathroom behind the bus timetable.”
Essentially the most exuberant masking letter got here from runner-up Liv Sisson. She raved, “Moths are unusual, similar to this literary award. They’re freaky. Loathed, even. However they’re additionally fascinating. And significant to our survival – they’re extra environment friendly pollinators than bees and simply as essential. I’d like to stay ALONE even briefly at THE SURREY HOTEL and to spend all my time studying about, writing about and probably even trapping some moths with my moveable LED mild lure (ordered particular from the UK).
“I can see it now – I’m sipping a pint, chatting with punters, then nipping outdoors to see what moths have flown in, beckoned by my mild lure and the nice and cozy, welcoming glow of THE SURREY HOTEL. I scuttle again to my room, flick by my reference supplies. I affirm who this moth is and start to piece their story collectively. Over 400 species fly round Auckland every evening. However this one is an historical relic of the sky, unchanged for 80 million years, she’s a lime inexperienced pūriri moth, a dinosaur of types who spends 5 YEARS as a caterpillar, munching on the picket pith of a pūriri tree all in anticipation of and preparation for simply 5 DAYS spent as a moth.”
Huzzah to all of the winners and due to all 143 who entered. Loudest huzzah to grand winner Joanna Cho. She joins earlier residency winners equivalent to Paula Morris, Talia Marshall and Colleen Maria Lenihan within the Surrey canon. I believe she’s a beautiful author, of poetry and prose. Her biographical prose writings consists of among the best issues I’ve ever printed, a romantic memoir of cruising in her boyfriend’s 1994 Mazda Familia GT-X within the teenage wastes of Auckland. She was in flip immortalised in a frankly unimaginable portrait of her by Plum’s father, author Fergus Porteous, about how they met in a category on the IIML: “Joanna and I began going to Les Mills collectively. It was a wierd strategy to fall in love.”
Last phrase within the tremendous hand of Joanna Cho. She despatched in a number of poems together with her entry. This was my favorite.
To see the calves
A lady in my antenatal group lives on a dairy farmand she invitations us over to see the newborn cows.
We’re the mums introduced collectively by nothing morethan the proximity of due dates and publish codes,though being semi-rural, even our postcodes cross the good motorwaythat rips by the hard-worked earthlike a caesarean scar.
However we now have one factor in frequent –this ethereal and corporeal understanding of what it isto be a mum – and wow, how clear and easy it might beif you simply settle for what’s!
All my life I’ve herded myself into this and that paddock,primarily based on the similarities I paid consideration toeven if the variations made me chew by the evening,questioning black and bluewhat the purpose of it was
and every time I fought the stitching of my shadow undoneI thought I used to be free, however I feltmore alone than ever earlier than, and nonetheless I assumed what’s the level,what’s the level, what’s the level…………….
it made me not take something significantly, as a result of I used to be afraidof what it might imply if one thing had been true,if I actually needed one thing and acquired itand didn’t break it.
A few of these women find out about vans and farms and mortgagesand I’m the oldest. Thirty within the metropolis is differentto thirty out right here, however we’re comfortable with each other as we sit on the rugand eat pizza below the solar, over our infants.
There’s something to it.
