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Poetry masterclass a feast of learning

Alisha VaraAlisha Vara (pictured) and Michaela Ball were finalists in the 2007 NZ Post National Secondary Schools Poetry Awards. Alisha sent in this report about her all-expenses paid trip to Wellington.

On the 17 August Michaela and I flew from Christchurch to Wellington for the National Schools Poetry Award masterclass weekend. Along with two sisters, a mum, last-minute workshop preparations on a laptop, and a box of Michaela's gluten-free nut bars we were good to go.

At the Mercure Hotel on the Terrace we met the other eight finalists from around New Zealand, the CEO of New Zealand Post, John Allen, (the sponsor of the weekend), and Bill Manhire, a world-renowned New Zealand poet. Many incriminating photos were taken, and much delicious food was loaded on our hotel tabs.

In the evening we made our way to the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts for the awards ceremony, where teachers, principals and various family members of the finalists gathered in the main art gallery for drinks and some rather interesting delicacies, which of the crème brulee was our voted favourite, the shellfish — not so much.

The much awaited results were announced (with intense anticipation) and Chloe Nannestad was announced as the overall winner of the 2007 award, with Shannyn Boyd winning the recording prize. The evening was not about to end - we were shown the music video of “The Pact”, Shannyn's poem transformed into song by The Black Seeds and Fly My Pretties member Barnaby Weir.

The next day we rose early to attend the masterclass at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University (IIML), a quick wander up the hill from our hotel, with Bill Manhire, Andrew Johnston (the judge of the competition), James Brown (last year's judge) and Dora Malech.

We discussed everything and anything that came to our minds concerning poetry, and wrote some very very strange and weird group poems, as well as getting to ask Bill Manhire “Twenty questions you've ever wanted to know about writing poetry” and not to mention some absolutely delicious food thanks to catering for a vegetarian, a celiac, 5 adults and 10 extremely hungry teenagers. I'd like to thank Clare Moleta from the IIML for her amazing organisation of the weekend – without her I don't think we would have survived.

Eating wasn't all we did during the weekend—or so it would seem.

After dining at a Malaysian restaurant we attended a play at the Circa theatre, “The Cape”, set in 1994 - “Kurt Cobain is dead, but Eb, Mo, Jordyn and Arthur are 17 years old, on the road and very much alive”. It was absolutely hilarious and brilliantly written- by a graduate of the IIML's writing degree, Vivienne Plumb. After the play the Wellington locals came back to the hotel to do some further socialising. I would like to say we had some very deep and meaningful conversations about poetry, and life in general, but no. We ate some more.

Sunday came extremely quickly, and one by one we were bundled off into taxis heading towards the airport. Emails and cellphone numbers were exchanged, and many, many hugs. The weekend was over. We were thrown back into, how can I put it nicely, the boring life of school, coming exams, and no more delicious Wellington food. Michaela and I said our goodbyes too, as she is now currently on AFS in Mexico.

I'd like to thank everyone who made the weekend possible, everyone who has ever encouraged me with my writing, and also for anyone out there who likes to write - you should definitely keep the National Schools Poetry Award in mind. It really was the experience of a lifetime, being able to meet such talented writers both my age and older, and through the masterclass we discovered a whole new world with words.