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EMBARGOED UNTIL 6PM, FRIDAY 27 JULY

Charlie Ward of Wellington has won the inaugural Great New Zealand Digi-Poem Competition with his audio-visual version of Paekakariki poet Apirana Taylor's poem 'Hinemoa's Daughter'.

The announcement will be made publicly by NZ Electronic Poetry Centre (nzepc) Director and Convenor of Judges Michele Leggott about 6.45pm tonight during the Montana Poetry Day event Poetry Central in Auckland City.

The judges were unanimous in their decision to give Charlie Ward's flash animation top prize from within a shortlist that shows clearly the range of skills needed to make a convincing digital work that is sensitive to the multiple demands of text and audio poetry.

"Charlie Ward achieves a balance between the visual, textual and auditory components of Apirana Taylor's poem 'Hinemoa's Daughter'", Michele Leggott said.

"His composition follows Taylor's evocative performance with nuanced images and typographical overlays that surprise and delight the eye as the poet speaks."

The other finalists were:
• Jody Lloyd of Trillion in Christchurch: On Originality by Bill Manhire
• Paul Homeboy (Christchurch): Instructions for the Consumption of your Humanitarian Food Package by Fiona Farrell
• Helen Sword of Auckland: Hinemoa's Daughter by Apirana Taylor

The Great NZ Digi-Poem Competition, created to celebrate Montana Poetry Day by the nzepc in association with Auckland University Press, sought the best digital transformations of poems by six well-known New Zealand poets.

The competition poems were drawn from AUP's Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance, the second of AUP's popular CD-with-book anthologies of poets in performance, which will be launched tonight on Montana Poetry Day, during Poetry Central at the Auckland Central Library.

The winner will receive an iPod Nano donated by the University of Auckland Library and books from Auckland University Press. All the shortlisted poems will go live on the nz electronic poetry website (http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/digital/contest07.asp) later tonight.

Poetry Central will take place from 6 to 8pm on the ground floor of Auckland Central Library in Lorne Street.

It will include readings from poets Fiona Farrell, Jan Kemp, Michele Leggott, Jack Ross, Bob Orr, Janet Charman, Richard von Sturmer, Iain Sharp and writer Martin Edmond reading for Alan Brunton.

The evening will also feature two AUP book launches - Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance and Fiona Farrell's The Pop-Up Book of Invasions - the launch of Fiona Farrell's nzepc author page and a birthday celebration for the nzepc's 6th birthday.

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