Jessica Le Bas

Jessica Le Bas
Le Bas at the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize ceremony at Auckland Writers Festival 2019, in Auckland, New Zealand
Language	English
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

Jessica Le Bas is a Nelson-based poet from New Zealand.

Background

Le Bas received her MA(Hons) from the University of Auckland.[1]

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 Polytechnic in 1997, and later received a writers' grant from Creative New Zealand.[1]

Le Bas has published two collections of poetry, Incognito in 2007,[2] and Walking to Africa in 2009.[3] In 2010, she published her first children's book, Staying Home: My True Diary of Survival, under the pseudonym ‘Jesse O’.[4] In 2021 the novel was re-released by Penguin Books New Zealand as Locked Down, and was illustrated by Toby Morris.[5] Le Bas and her novel featured at the 2021 Auckland Writers' Festival as part of the Schools' Programme.[6]

Poems by Le Bas have appeared in Landfall,[7] Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook,[8] and the Best New Zealand Poems series in 2007.[9] She has also published in a number of other literary journals including Sport,[10] Blackmail Press,[11][12] and Trout.[13] She was featured in issue 32 of Poetry New Zealand.[14]

Awards

Incognito won the 2007 NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.[15]

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][16]

Le Bas has also won the New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition, 2005 Bravado Poetry Competition,[14] and been shortlisted in the Landfall Essay Competition.[1][17]

In 2019, she won the 2019 Sarah Broom Poetry Prize[18] with a short collection of poems titled Large Ocean Islands that arose from living and working in the Cook Islands between 2017 and 2020.[19]

References

1. "Jessica Le Bas". Auckland University Press. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
2. Le Bas, Jessica (2007). Incognito. Auckland University Press. ISBN 9781869403928.
3. Le Bas, Jessica (2009). Walking to Africa. Auckland University Press. ISBN 9781869403928.
4. "Staying Home, by Jesse O". fishpond.co.nz. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
5. "Locked Down, by Jesse O". penguin.co.nz. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
6. "Auckland Writers Festival 2021 Schools Programme Hōtaka Kura" (PDF). writersfestival.co.nz. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
7. "Landfall 240: Spring 2020". otago.ac.nz. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
8. "Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2023". masseypress.ac.nz. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
9. "Best New Zealand Poems 2007". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
10. "Jessica Le Bas — incognito, my love". NZETC. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
11. "Blackmail Press 24". Blackmail Press. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
12. "BMP13 The 36 inch bust issue". Blackmail Press. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
13. Le Bas, Jessica. "Jessica Le Bas: snap shots". Trout. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
14. "Poetry New Zealand Issue 32". Poetry New Zealand. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
15. "Past Winners by Author". New Zealand Book Awards Trust. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
16. "Winner announced ‐ Sarah Broom Poetry Prize 2019". Booksellers. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
17. "Jessica Le Bas - Best New Zealand Poems 2007". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
18. "Winner announced ‐ Sarah Broom Poetry Prize 2019". Sarah Broom Poetry Prize. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
19. "Sarah Broom Poetry Prize - Winner 2019 Jessica Le Bas". Sarah Broom Poetry Prize. Retrieved 17 February 2023.