Strong Words 4: The best of the Landfall Essay Competition

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Strong Words 4 continues the tradition of showcasing Aotearoa New Zealand's best contemporary essays, presenting a diverse collection of thought-provoking, beautifully crafted works. Selected from the 2023 and 2024 Landfall Essay Competition entries, this volume also includes the winners of both years' Landfall Young Writers' Essay Competitions.

These essays explore a wide range of topics, from queer rights and female reproduction to neoliberalism, capitalism, colonisation and environmental destruction. Personal reflections on motherhood, fatherhood, friendship and love sit alongside sharp critiques of the intellectual and property classes.

With pieces touching on cancer, dementia, animal rights and the abuse of power, the collection captures the complexity of life in Aotearoa. Some essays embrace traditional storytelling, while others push boundaries with experimental structure and form. The result is a compelling snapshot of New Zealand's current cultural landscape-at a time when platforms for long-form, reflective writing are rare. Amid the noise of online content, Strong Words 4 offers a vital space for thoughtful critiques of society. As always, these essays are essential reading for anyone invested in New Zealand's literary and cultural future.

Contributors: Hannah August, Anne Marie Basquin, Diane Brown, Majella Cullinane,Kate Duignan, Rebekah Galbraith, Siobhan Harvey, Julie Hill, Emma Hughes, Pennie Hunt, Amelia Reynolds, Catherine Russ, Sylvan Spring, Jillian Sullivan, Joseph Trinidad, Kathryn van Beek, Franchesca Walker, Marilyn Wright, Xiaole Zhan.

Reviews

'The Strong Words collections, which showcase some of the competition's best entries, have thus become a snapshot of some of the country's best writing. A good essay, like a good poem, makes big points from small moments, or uses the personal to convey the universal.' - Laura Williamson, 1964 Magazine



'The title of this anthology is apt. Many of these essays explore the need for strength: in grief and in fear; in becoming one's true self; in staring down society's disapproval; in holding feelings for another; in coming face to face with medical conditions that will alter life as one knows it. Strong Words lays down a gauntlet, and the assembled authors rise to the challenge. These are subtle, nuanced explorations of the personal and the political, and of our particular culture, place and time.' - Erica Stretton, Aotearoa NZ Review of Books

Author Bio

Lynley Edmeades has published two poetry collections and a poetry and art picture book for adults. She teaches English and creative writing at the University of Otago and is the current editor of Landfall.