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Airini Beautris: Ockham s winner on Bug Week, back-stabbing, motherhood and pole dancing 14 May, 2021 08:00 PM 9 minutes to read Whanganui writer Airini Beautrais has won the coveted fiction prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards with a provocative collection of short stories. Photo / Marcel Tromp Whanganui writer Airini Beautrais has won the coveted fiction prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards with a provocative collection of short stories. Photo / Marcel Tromp By: Joanna Mathers Airini Beautrais, this year s Jann Medlicott Acorn for Fiction winner at the 2021 Ockham awards, talks with Joanna Mathers about stepping into the limelight. They are waiting. The women are waiting. Down the lushly carpeted ....
Friday, 14 May 2021, 12:56 pm It wasn’t your ordinary Wednesday, at least not for UCOL lecturer Airini Beautrais. At the New Zealand Ockham Book Awards it was announced that Beautrais has won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction – the country’s most prestigious literary fiction award, coming with a $57,000 prize. Beautrais won for her collection of short stories ‘ Bug Week’, which judges described as “a tightly-wound and remarkably assured collection”. The win has been viewed as something of an industry upset, especially given that Beautrais was a first time nominee, and is only the second person in 53 years to win for a collection of short stories. ....
The thing about short stories is that there is nowhere to hide. A short story has to work hard, saying a lot by saying very little. Whether she is writing about or from the perspective of a little girl, a spurned lover, an ageing madam, or, astonishingly, a toroa (albatross), Beautrais nails an authentic voice each time. With a spiky confidence and knowing, mordant humour, Beautrais writes with a crushing and witty eye on humanity at its most troubled and askew. We all agreed it’s a tightly wound and remarkably assured collection that sustains a vice-like grip from start to finish. These atmospheric short stories evoke a strong sense of quiet unease, a dark underbelly, slow burning rage as well as the absurdly comic. Scrutinising the female experience from a dazzling multitude of angles and voices, each story crackles with raw power and a bracing energy. Bug Week is a beautifully observed and fierce punch in the guts. ....
Composite: Stuff Airini Beautrais’ Bug Week is the first short story collection to win the Acorn Prize in over a decade, and the second ever. First-time nominee Airini Beautrais was awarded the country’s premier fiction prize at the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards on Wednesday night. The Whanganui-based author beat out two previous winners and a previous nominee to win the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, becoming the first winner for a collection of short stories in over a decade. Beautrais took out the $57,000 prize for Bug Week, her first work of prose following four books of poetry. It is only the second ever short story collection to win the Acorn Prize. ....
Whanganui author Airini Beautrais wins major prize at Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 12 May, 2021 08:45 AM 3 minutes to read Beautrais Bug Week is the first short story collection to win the major prize in over a decade and only the second in the awards 53-year history. Photo / Lewis Gardner Beautrais Bug Week is the first short story collection to win the major prize in over a decade and only the second in the awards 53-year history. Photo / Lewis Gardner Whanganui writer Airini Beautrais has won New Zealand s biggest writing prize. Beautrais was announced the winner of the $57,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in Auckland on Wednesday night. ....