The AAWP is delighted to announce the winners of the Postgraduate Prize for the most outstanding paper presented at the 19th Annual Conference at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand, in 2014.

The winner is Lisa Smithies (Melbourne University) for her paper ‘Playing with Gaps: Cognitive Science and the Creative Writer’. Extract from judges’ comments: a balanced, generous and memorable piece of writing.

Highly Commended is Shari Kocher (Melbourne University) for her paper ‘Flying into the eye of the volcano: Dickinson’s volcano imagery in Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red’. Extract from judges’ comments: This paper is extremely erudite. It weaves fine threads with a poised hand.

Prizes total $400, and the winner is offered the opportunity to co-edit the conference proceedings.

The Postgraduate Prize for most outstanding conference paper is open to postgraduate conference participants each year. It aims to encourage and reward excellence in research and scholarship in creative writing. Papers are ranked according to the following criteria: clarity of the research question; significance of the inquiry; originality in thought and approach; appropriateness of the writing style. The judges commented that a number of papers were in very close contention for the top prizes this year.

The AAWP warmly congratulates Lisa and Shari for their exceptionally engaging papers. Thanks as well to all the postgraduates who submitted their papers for consideration, and we look forward to seeing you at the next AAWP conference.