Poetry awards honour up-and-coming literary giants

By Leslie Vryenhoek | April 2, 2007

Amanda Jernigan, a graduate student of English, was this year’s winner of the Gregory J. Power Poetry Award. Ms. Jernigan’s poem, Crash, won first prize in the annual competition that honours emerging student poets at Memorial.

Ms. Jernigan was presented with a cheque for $300 at a ceremony on Thursday, March 29. John Hoben, a graduate student in Education, won second prize ($200) for Banting Lake and Degan Davis took third ($100) with Winter. Three honourable mentions were also awarded to Chris Mercer, Jenna Hawkins and Duncan Major. 

The competition is open to all Memorial undergraduate and graduate students, and entries are judged by a panel of faculty members from the Department of English Language and Literature.

Dr. Andrew Loman was on the judging panel: “The quality of the submissions in this year’s competition was impressive. Although the judges were unanimous about the top three poems, we were delighted by the range and quality of the entries,” he said.

"As a newcomer to the province, I was thrilled to see the virtuosity of these emerging poets. There’s every indication that these writers will foster this province’s growing literary reputation in the years ahead.”

Gregory J. Power was born in Dunville in 1909 and first achieved recognition as an athlete; in 1930, he represented Newfoundland at the first British Empire Games. He was MHA for Placentia-St. Mary's from 1951 to 1959, serving as both Minister of Finance and Minister of Highways in those years. However, this award is in recognition of Mr. Power’s literary gifts: he twice won the O’Leary Newfoundland Poetry Awards and published two important books: Gems of Newfoundland Poetry (1967) and The Power of the Pen (1989). His poem "Bogwood" has been called one of the province’s best literary achievements.

In addition to readings by the student winners at the ceremony, internationally renowned Newfoundland poet Tom Dawe read from his work.


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