The recipients of the 2015 Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement were announced on the 19th of October. The ceremony was held on Thursday the 22nd of October. And the cherry on top of the cake was a lunchtime event on Friday the 23rd at Unity Books Wellington. Chaired by 2015 Michael King fellowship recipient Martin Edmond, the event involved all three winners – Bernadette Hall for poetry, Roger Hall for fiction and Joan Metge for non-fiction.
Martin spoke of the privilege of hosting event with ‘three such distinguished elders’, then explained the format of the session – readings followed by ‘hopefully some time for a little repartee’.
He introduced Joan first, explaining that his first encounter with her work was as a schoolboy in Huntly. He was awarded one of her books as a prize in 1967 – Joan confirmed that given the year, it would have been The Maoris of New Zealand.
In a Q&A with the New Zealand Herald earlier this year, Joan said ‘I never sought to build a career, I thought of it as a calling’. After Martin referred to this, Joan explained a little of how her early life brought her to anthropology and social history. When speaking to someone at Auckland Museum about her anthropology studies, they asked ‘wouldn’t you rather work with people who can talk back?’
Roger Hall was next up, and he and Martin discussed his background – as well as some artistic differences between the two men in their younger years. With Roger putting on plays at Downstage and Martin being involved in alternative theatre (particularly with Red Mole), there was a little bit of theatrical tension between the groups they were involved with – but Martin commented that as time went by, he came to realise the importance of the ‘great diversity in New Zealand theatre’.
Roger then read an extract from his book about playwriting from his book Best Playwriting Book Ever (previous published as The Theatre Writer’s Guide: Hot Tips for Good Scripts) – choosing a section comparing the set-up of Sale of the Century to crafting a play.
After Roger’s words of wit and wisdom, we heard from Bernadette. She talked about how her time as a classics student at Otago University helped lead her towards poetry – particularly by means of poet Iain Lonie, who ‘so impressed [her] with his life’.
She also echoed Martin and Joan’s earlier conversation about a mutual appreciation for archaeology, talking about how she was ‘always interested in how people lived long ago’.
Family and familial loss led to poetry providing an outlet of sorts, both at an early age and more recently. At the death of her father (when Bernadette was 15) she ‘went upstairs and wrote 10 pages of him’. And later, after the loss of her niece in the 2005 London bombing, she wrote to process the tragedy, and the poem that resulted was one of those that she read at our event.
A few last questions and final words were then posed to the writers. This included the inevitable ‘Are you two related?’ to the Halls, which was met with a reply of ‘Not yet!’. There was brief conversation surrounding Roger being the first dramatist to win the fiction award, and the differences between fiction, theatre writing and poetry. Everything wrapped up with the usual combination of signing books and chatter with friends and fans.
This year’s Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement recipients and their audience.
Martin Edmond, the 2015 Michael King Fellowship recipient, and Bernadette Hall, the 2015 Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement – Poetry recipient, listen to Roger Hall, the 2015
Joan Metge speaking alongside Martin Edmond, Bernadette Hall and Roger Hall.
Joan Metge addressing the crowd alongside her fellow writers.
Joan Metge, the 2015 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement – Non-Fiction.
Photography by Matt Bialostocki, words by Briar Lawry.
