Jessica Le Bas
Jessica Le Bas is a Rarotonga-based poet from New Zealand.
Jessica Le Bas | |
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Jessica Le Bas at the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize ceremony at Auckland Writers Festival 2019, in Auckland, New Zealand | |
Language | English |
Residence | Nikao, Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
Nationality | New Zealander |
Alma mater | University of Auckland |
Genre | Poetry |
Notable works | Incognito, Walking to Africa |
Notable awards | NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry, Sarah Broom Poetry Prize 2019 |
Background
Le Bas received her MA(Hons) from the University of Auckland.[1] She is currently based in Rarotonga, Cook Islands.[2]
Career
During the Balkan Wars, Le Bas worked for the United Nations as a Training Consultant for UNPROFOR. She has worked at the Beehive in Wellington as Private Secretary to a government Minister. She took Owen Marshall’s Fiction Writing Course at Aoraki and after receiving a grant from Creative New Zealand.[1]
Le Bas has published two collections of poetry, Incognito in 2007,[3] and Walking to Africa in 2009.[4] In 2010, she published her first children's book, Staying Home: My True Diary of Survival, under the pseudonym ‘Jesse O’. [5]
Poems by Le Bas have appeared in the Best New Zealand Poems series in 2007.[6] She has also published in a number of literary journals including Sport,[7] Blackmail Press,[8][9] and Trout.[10] She was featured in issue 32 of Poetry New Zealand.[11]
Awards
Incognito won the 2007 NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.[12]
In 2007, she received a New Zealand Mental Health Foundation Media Grant to write Walking to Africa, which was a finalist in the Ashton Wylie Book Awards.[1][13]
Le Bas has also won the New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition, 2005 Bravado Poetry Competition,[11] and been shortlisted in the Landfall Essay Competition.[1][14]
In 2019, she won the 2019 Sarah Broom Poetry Prize.[2]
References
- "Jessica Le Bas". Auckland University Press. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- "Winner announced ‐ Sarah Broom Poetry Prize 2019". Sarah Broom Poetry Prize. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
- Le Bas, Jessica (2007). Incognito. Auckland University Press. ISBN 9781869403928.
- Le Bas, Jessica (2009). Walking to Africa. Auckland University Press. ISBN 9781869403928.
- "Staying Home, by Jesse O". fishpond.co.nz. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
- "Best New Zealand Poems 2007". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- "Jessica Le Bas — incognito, my love". NZETC. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- "Blackmail Press 24". Blackmail Press. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- "BMP13 The 36 inch bust issue". Blackmail Press. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- Le Bas, Jessica. "Jessica Le Bas: snap shots". Trout. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- "Poetry New Zealand Issue 32". Poetry New Zealand. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- "Past Winners by Author". New Zealand Book Awards Trust. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- "Winner announced ‐ Sarah Broom Poetry Prize 2019". Booksellers. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
- "Jessica Le Bas - Best New Zealand Poems 2007". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. Retrieved 25 November 2017.