Courtney Sina Meredith

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Courtney Sina Meredith
Born1986 (age 36–37)
NationalityNew Zealander
Alma mater University of Auckland
GenrePlays, poetry, short stories
Website
Official website

Courtney Sina Meredith (born 1986) is a poet, playwright, and short story author from New Zealand.

Contents

Background

Born in 1986, Meredith grew up in Glen Innes and is of Samoan, Cook Island and Irish descent. [1] [2] [3] She attended Ponsonby Primary School, Ponsonby Intermediate School, and Western Springs College, [4] her mother Kim Meredith is also a poet. [5] Meredith studied English and Political Studies at the University of Auckland. [6] [1]

Career

Meredith's writing is often political, dealing with issues such as poverty, conflict, sexism and racism, and draws on her roots in the Samoan diaspora of Auckland. [1]

Meredith's play Rushing Dolls, was published in 2012 in the collection Urbanesia: Four Pasifika Plays. [7] She has also published Brown Girls in Bright Red Lipstick, [8] a book of poetry, and Tail of the Taniwha, a collection of short stories and poetry. [9] Her work has been translated into Italian, German, Dutch, French, Spanish and Bahasa Indonesia. [3]

Work by Meredith has also been published in literary journals including Poetry New Zealand, [10] What's Poetry? and Ika. [1]

Meredith has spoken at a number of book festivals including the Frankfurt Book Fair, [1] the Mexico City Poetry Festival, [11] and Edinburgh International Book Festival. [12] [13]

Her children and young persons book The Adventures of Tupaia co-authored with Mat Tait came out in 2019 and is about Tupaia, a navigator from Tahiti, who sailed to New Zealand with Captain Cook on board the Endeavour. [14] In 2021 the poetry book by Merideth Burst Kisses on the Actual Wind was published by Beatnik Publishing. [5]

She was the director of the Tautai Pacific Arts Trust in 2022, which is a leading Pacific arts organisation based on Karangahape Road in Auckland. She has also lectured, been a contributing editor for Paperboy, worked at the Auckland Council in Arts and Culture and Festival and Community Events teams, and partnerships manager at Manukau Institute of Technology. [15] [16]

Awards

Meredith received a grant from Creative New Zealand to develop her collection of short stories, Tail of the Taniwha. [3]

In 2011, Meredith became the first writer of Pasifika descent and first New Zealander to hold the LiteraturRaum Blebitreu Berlin residency. In 2016 she was invited to participant in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. [3] [17] Following this residency, she was writer in residence at the Island Institute in Sitka, Alaska. [18] She has also held a residency at the Sylt Foundation. [1]

In 2010, her play Rushing Dolls was the runner up for the Adam NZ Play Award and won Best Play by a Woman Playwright. [19] The same year it won the Aotearoa Pasifika Play Competition. [10]

In the 2013 PANZ Book Design Awards, Brown Girls in Bright Red Lipstick received a Highly Commended in the category of Hachette New Zealand Award for Best Non-Illustrated Book. [20]

Tail of the Taniwha was longlisted for the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize. [21]

In 2021 she was awarded the University of Auckland’s Young Alumna of the Year [22]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Courtney Sina Meredith". New Zealand Book Council. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  2. ↑ "Courtney Sina Meredith - poet, writer off to Iowa". Radio New Zealand. 19 August 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Tail of the Taniwha". Creative New Zealand. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  4. ↑ "Courtney Sina Meredith: Why I push so hard". E-Tangata - A Māori and Pasifika Sunday magazine. 7 August 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  5. 1 2 "New poetry from author and slam artist - Courtney Sina Meredith". RNZ. 18 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  6. ↑ "Tail of the Taniwha". The University of Auckland. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  7. ↑ Meredith, Courtney Sina; et al. (2012). Urbanesia: Four Pasifika Plays. Playmarket. ISBN   9780908607433.
  8. ↑ Meredith, Courtney Sina (2012). Brown Girls in Bright Red Lipstick. Beatnik Publishing. ISBN   9780473219987.
  9. ↑ Meredith, Courtney Sina (2016). Tail of the Taniwha. Beatnik Publishing. ISBN   9780992264895.
  10. 1 2 "Issue 46". Poetry New Zealand. 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  11. ↑ "An Interview with Courtney Sina Meredith (Mexico City Poetry Festival)". Beatnik Publishing. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  12. ↑ "MacGillivray & Courtney Sina Meredith". Edinburgh International Book Festival. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  13. ↑ "Edinburgh International Book Festival: Courtney Sina Meredith". NZ At Edinburgh. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  14. ↑ "The Adventures of Tupaia - Courtney Sina Meredith and Mat Tait - 9781988547145 - Allen & Unwin - Australia". www.allenandunwin.com. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  15. ↑ "Courtney Sina Meredith". TAUTAI - GUIDING PACIFIC ARTS. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  16. ↑ "Pacific author becomes young alumna 2020". RNZ. 17 February 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  17. ↑ "Writers from New Zealand | The International Writing Program". University of Iowa. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  18. ↑ "Resident Fellows Alumni". Island Institute. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  19. ↑ "Adam NZ Play Award". Playmarket. Archived from the original on 16 November 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  20. ↑ "2013 Best non-illustrated Highly Commended Beatnik". PANZ Book Design Awards. 18 July 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  21. ↑ "2017 Awards Longlist". New Zealand Book Awards Trust. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  22. ↑ "Courtney Sina Meredith: writer bursting with talent honoured - The University of Auckland". University of Auckland. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
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