Kerikeri writer Lynn Jenner’s prize-winning poetry collection is set to be released next month.
Kerikeri writer Lynn Jenner’s prize-winning poetry collection is set to be released next month.
Last year writer Lynn Jenner was awarded the Kathleen Grattan Award for Poetry, and her winning collection, The Gum Trees of Kerikeri, will be released on March 19.
The award, one of New Zealand’s longest-running poetry prizes, recognises an unpublished manuscript each year and brings it to national attention. Jenner’swinning collection is rooted in the landscape she now calls home.
Grounded in the natural world and the community of the land the speaker lives on – an area in the far north of New Zealand that was once a kauri forest – the collection weaves observations and encounters from daily life with musings on societal and environmental issues, memory, history, art and culture.
Across 56 finely tuned prose poems, Jenner’s technical restraint and precision allow her explorations to unfold with calm, measured power. She draws connections between people, place and creative practice, examining how time, art and memory shape our sense of belonging.
She said having the collection chosen by Chris Tse, who she has a great deal of respect for, who was New Zealand’s Poet Laureate at the time of the competition, was an honour.
“It’s always affirming to have work published or to gain recognition like this prize. I hope that Northland writing might get a bit more attention on the national scene because of the prize. Northland has a very lively writing scene and people are doing some great work that deserves more attention. I hope I can support that.”
Her work will be launched in Kerikeri on March 29, in a launch sponsored by the NZ Poetry Society.
Lynn Jenner's The Gum Trees of Kerikeri is a collection of over 50 prose poems.
Jenner and her partner moved to Northland from the Kāpiti Coast in 2020.
“The move was a big culture shock, and I have been learning about Northland ever since, nearly six years now. The poems represent some of the things I have learned in that time. Tiny things like which birds live on the land and bigger things like how friendly people are and also some of the tough edges of the place.”
He said she has been fascinated by the ways people have tried to make a living in the Kerikeri area.
“There have been so many changes, and the biggest one of all is the arrival of colonists, who saw the kauri trees, the gum and the land as resources they could extract and/or sell. These days tourists are an important crop.”
Jenner chose to present her work as prose poems, which she said are easy to read, “like a story someone is telling you, and like other poetry, they have images that give the poems emotional resonance. I like this combination of storytelling, emotion and a bit of surprise”.
“The poems in this collection are like a family. Each poem is an individual but you can understand them better when you see them with their family. I fall in and out of love with them over time.”
She said living rurally has made her focus on the natural world more than when she lived in the city.
“Just this morning I was sitting with the family, drinking coffee, and I noticed the bird calls right outside. Right now, as I write this, crickets are chirping. There is no traffic noise. I feel lucky to be living in such a beautiful place, and that beauty is right there in the poems.”
