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

Background

Beautrais was born in 1982 and grew up in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

and

Whanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

. She studied creative writing and ecological science at the

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

. In 2016 she received her PhD in Creative Writing from the

International Institute of Modern Letters The International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) ( mi, Te Pūtahi Tuhi Auaha o te Ao) is a centre of creative writing based within Victoria University of Wellington. Founded in 2001, the IIML offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses (i ...

, under doctoral advisors

Harry Ricketts Harry Ricketts (born 1950) is a poet, biographer, editor, anthologist, critic, academic, literary scholar and cricket writer. He has written biographies of Rudyard Kipling and of a dozen British First World War poets. Life Ricketts was bor ...

and James Brown. , Beautrais lives in Whanganui with her two sons.

Works

Beautrais's writing draws on her personal experiences, and is often set in her hometown of Whanganui. Beautrais has published four collections of poetry with

Victoria University Press Te Herenga Waka University Press or THWUP (formerly Victoria University Press) is the book publishing arm of Victoria University of Wellington, located in Wellington, New Zealand. As of 2022, the press had published around 800 books. History Vi ...

: ''Secret Heart'' (2006); ''Western Line'' (2011); ''Dear Neil Roberts'' (VUP, 2014); and ''Flow: Whanganui River Poems'' (2017). In 2020 Victoria University Press published a collection of her short stories, titled ''Bug Week & Other Stories.'' 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". She has been published in the ''Best New Zealand Poems'' series (2016) and literary journals, including ''Overland,'' and ''Penduline''.

Awards

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 The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. The awards began in 1996 as the merger of two literary awards events: the New Zealand Book Awards, which ran from 1976 to 1995, and the Goodman Fielder W ...

. ''Dear Neil Roberts'' was longlisted in the poetry category of the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Award. In 2016 she was shortlisted for the

Sarah Broom Poetry Prize The Sarah Broom Poetry Prize is one of New Zealand's most valuable poetry prizes. It was established to celebrate the life and work of New Zealand poet Sarah Broom. The prize was first awarded in 2014. History The Sarah Broom Poetry Prize was e ...

. Beautrais won the 2016

Landfall Essay Competition The ''Landfall'' Essay Competition is an annual competition open to New Zealand writers. It is judged by the current editor of the long-running literary magazine ''Landfall'' and the winning entry is published in a subsequent issue of the maga ...

. She won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2021

Ockham New Zealand Book Awards The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. The awards began in 1996 as the merger of two literary awards events: the New Zealand Book Awards, which ran from 1976 to 1995, and the Goodman Fielder W ...

for ''Bug Week & Other Stories'', receiving an award of 57,000, New Zealand's largest cash book prize. 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.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beautrais, Airini Living people 1982 births People from Whanganui International Institute of Modern Letters alumni New Zealand fiction writers New Zealand women poets