'Remarkable' poetry collection wins Phoenix Prize

A poetry collection about being a half-Aotearoa, half-Italian girl growing up in New Zealand has won the 2025 Phoenix prize for best Master of Creative Writing thesis at the University of Auckland.

Winning author Cian Dennan says her collection, which has the working title GIRLCHILD, weaves together “the violent underpinnings of Catholicism, the intricacies of the mother-daughter dynamic, and the unreliability of memory to explore the intimate dimensions of a uniquely Italian girlhood and the gendered violence we inherit as we come of age”.

Dennan says she was motivated to write it in part to bear witness to the trials and tribulations of girlhood, on both a universal and deeply personal level.

“In part, this collection serves as catharsis, a deep release of the sticky tangible things that follow us into adulthood from a thorny youth, while also existing out of reverence for my mother line, as characterised versions of my mother and maternal grandmother 'Ma' feature heavily throughout the collection. In sharing my own story, I inevitably share their stories too.”

Like any poet who uses the first-person pronoun in their work, Dennan says she tries to maintain the fine line between what's confessional and what's bearing witness, and cites a couple of key influences.

“It's in the details that stories or poems become tangible, and I’m particularly interested in bringing the body onto the page. As a reader of poetry, I'm partial to the Beat Generation of poets, for their rhythmic use of language and explicit portrayal of the human experience, as well as contemporary feminist poets who use their lived experience to explore the human condition; this informs my work too.”

GIRLCHILD explores a range of poetic forms, and Dennan says form often imitates content in her work.

“There are poems made up of fragments to imitate the texture of memory, long-form prose poems that blur the line between creative nonfiction and poetry, and unrelenting, condensed column poems that deliver confronting content in a way that doesn't let you take a breath.”

She is, of course, hoping for a publisher for the collection and feels “incredibly fortunate” to have won the Phoenix prize.

“Especially considering the exceptional talent of my fellow MCW cohort. It’s an honour to be placed amongst the ranks of fellow MCW alums who have won the year’s best thesis prize and gone on to achieve remarkable industry success. May I follow in their footsteps!”

Dennan says that, as with any creative project at university level, after submitting her thesis, she needed to step away and let the collection breathe after what felt like months of dissecting and reworking it to achieve the A+ grade she’d hoped for, and received.

“Having won this prize demonstrates real recognition for the kind of work I’m creating and has revitalised me to pick the pen back up, so to speak, to continue refining my collection in the pursuit of publication.”

External judge award-winning poet Anne Kennedy, who examined the collection as an MCW dissertation, called it “a remarkable work."

She describes it as a “book-length poetic sequence that focuses on an Italian/Aotearoa girl coming of age in a patriarchal environment steeped in both Italian and Kiwi-Gothic mores.”

Kennedy notes Dennan’s “clear artistic vision” and says the collection “uses the elements of poetry in technically excellent and culturally specific ways to create a sustained work of originality.”

It's the first time in a decade that a poet has won the prize for best dissertation, says Master of Creative Writing director Associate Professor Paula Morris, and it’s well deserved.

“Cian has written an accomplished poetry collection that reflects both wide-ranging influences and her own artistic confidence. She's a distinctive new voice in New Zealand poetry, and this is a book that should be published.”

The Phoenix Prize
Established in 2023, the Phoenix Prize recognises a University of Auckland Master of Creative Writing (MCW) manuscript of high quality with strong potential to succeed commercially.

The $3,500 prize, awarded annually, was established thanks to the generosity of MCW alumni and aims to support the completion of the year’s most promising manuscript towards publication.

Previous winners have included Rachel Paris, whose debut novel See How They Fall has been a success commercially and attracted interest from Hollywood, and top screenwriter Gavin Strawhan, whose recent credits include five-part TV series Testify and true-life drama Black Hands.