Airini Jane Beautrais (born 1982) is a poet and short-story writer from New Zealand.

Dr

Airini Beautrais
Airini Beautrais in 2021
Airini Beautrais in 2021
Born1982 (age 41–42)
New Zealand
LanguageEnglish
Alma materVictoria University of Wellington
Notable worksSecret Heart
Bug Week & Other Stories
Notable awardsNZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book of Poetry
Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction

Background

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Beautrais was born in 1982 and grew up in Auckland and Whanganui.[1] She studied creative writing and ecological science at the Victoria University of Wellington.[2] In 2016 she received her PhD in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters, under doctoral advisors Harry Ricketts and James Brown.[3][4][5]

As of 2021, Beautrais lives in Whanganui with her two sons.[6]

Works

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Beautrais's writing draws on her personal experiences, and is often set in her hometown of Whanganui.[7]

Beautrais has published four collections of poetry with Victoria University Press: Secret Heart (2006); Western Line (2011); Dear Neil Roberts (VUP, 2014); and Flow: Whanganui River Poems (2017).[2] In 2020 Victoria University Press published a collection of her short stories, titled Bug Week & Other Stories.[8] The collection had taken her ten years to write, and she has said it was inspired by "the female experience, from girlhood through to middle age and end of life".[6][9]

She has been published in the Best New Zealand Poems series (2016)[10] and literary journals, including Overland, [11] and Penduline.[12]

Awards

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Beautrais's first collection of poetry, Secret Heart, was awarded the NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book of Poetry at the 2007 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.[13]

Dear Neil Roberts was longlisted in the poetry category of the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Award.[14]

In 2016 she was shortlisted for the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize.[15]

Beautrais won the 2016 Landfall Essay Competition.[3]

She won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for Bug Week & Other Stories, receiving an award of NZ$57,000, New Zealand's largest cash book prize.[9][16] Kiran Dass, the category's convener of judges, said of the book: "Casting a devastating and witty eye on humanity at its most fallible and wonky, this is a tightly-wound and remarkably assured collection". It was only the second short-story collection to win the top fiction prize in the history of the New Zealand Book Awards.[9]

References

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  1. ^ Beautrais, Airini (2015). Dear Neil Roberts. Victoria University Press. ISBN 9781776560141.
  2. ^ a b "Airini Beautrais". Victoria University Press. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Airini Beautrais wins Landfall Essay Competition 2016". University of Otago. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  4. ^ "BNZP 2016 Airini Beautrais". Best New Zealand Poems. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  5. ^ Beautrais, Airini (2016). Narrativity and segmentivity in contemporary Australian and New Zealand long poems and poem sequences (Doctoral thesis). Open Access Repository Victoria University of Wellington, Victoria University of Wellington. doi:10.26686/wgtn.17018795.
  6. ^ a b Hunt, Elle (2 March 2021). "Ockham Awards shortlist: Airini Beautrais on Bug Week & Other Stories". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  7. ^ "Interview with Airini Beautrais". Victoria University Press. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  8. ^ Beautrais, Airini (6 May 2021). Bug week : & other stories. Wellington, New Zealand. ISBN 978-1-77656-305-0. OCLC 1182024497.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ a b c McClure, Tess (12 May 2012). "Airini Beautrais wins New Zealand's Ockham fiction prize for short story collection Bug Week". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  10. ^ "Best New Zealand Poems 2016". Best New Zealand Poems. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  11. ^ "Flow". Overland literary journal. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  12. ^ "A pair of hands". Penduline Press. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  13. ^ "Past Winners by Author". New Zealand Book Awards Trust. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  14. ^ "Previous Longlist 2016". New Zealand Book Awards Trust. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  15. ^ "Sarah Broom Poetry Award Finalists". NZ Poetry Shelf. 3 May 2016. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  16. ^ "Beautrais wins 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Award for fiction". Books+Publishing. 13 May 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
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