Jessica Le Bas
{{Short description|New Zealand poet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Jessica Le Bas
| embed =
| honorific_prefix =
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Jessica_Le_Bas_at_the_Sarah_Broom_Poetry_Prize_ceremony_at_Auckland_Writers_Festival_2019,_in_Auckland,_New_Zealand.jpg
| image_size =
| image_upright =
| alt =
| caption = Le Bas at the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize ceremony at Auckland Writers Festival 2019, in Auckland, New Zealand
| birth_name =
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| death_date =
| death_place =
| resting_place =
| occupation =
| language = English
| nationality =
| alma_mater = University of Auckland
| genre = Poetry
| notableworks = Incognito, Walking to Africa
| awards = NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry, Sarah Broom Poetry Prize 2019
| website =
}}
Jessica Le Bas is a Nelson-based poet from New Zealand.
Background
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.
Le Bas has published two collections of poetry, Incognito in 2007,{{Cite book|url=http://www.press.auckland.ac.nz/en/browse-books/all-books/books-2007/Incognito.html|title=Incognito|last=Le Bas|first=Jessica|publisher=Auckland University Press|year=2007|isbn=9781869403928}} and Walking to Africa in 2009.{{Cite book|url=http://www.press.auckland.ac.nz/en/browse-books/all-books/books-2009/Walking-to-Africa.html|title=Walking to Africa|last=Le Bas|first=Jessica|publisher=Auckland University Press|year=2009|isbn=9781869403928}} In 2010, she published her first children's book, Staying Home: My True Diary of Survival, under the pseudonym ‘Jesse O’.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Staying-Home-Jesse-O/9780143305699?fbclid=IwAR2nNoXIRrf8EjH9mQkUk6J4rpLfi6UMPbrPv_mUxHg9KB_GDYxu0O4ztu8|title=Staying Home, by Jesse O|website=fishpond.co.nz|access-date=18 March 2020}} In 2021 the novel was re-released by Penguin Books New Zealand as Locked Down, and was illustrated by Toby Morris.{{Cite web|url=https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/locked-down-9780143775331|title=Locked Down, by Jesse O|website=penguin.co.nz|access-date=5 July 2021}} Le Bas and her novel featured at the 2021 Auckland Writers' Festival as part of the Schools' Programme.{{Cite web|url=https://www.writersfestival.co.nz/Images/Assets/1416699/1/AWF_2021_Schools-Programme.pdf|title=
Auckland Writers Festival 2021 Schools Programme Hōtaka Kura|website=writersfestival.co.nz|access-date=5 July 2021}}
Poems by Le Bas have appeared in Landfall,{{Cite web|url=https://www.otago.ac.nz/press/books/otago748883.html|title=Landfall 240: Spring 2020|website=otago.ac.nz|access-date=17 Feb 2023}} Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook,{{Cite web|url=https://www.masseypress.ac.nz/books/poetry-aotearoa-yearbook-2023/|title=Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2023|website=masseypress.ac.nz|access-date=17 Feb 2023}} and the Best New Zealand Poems series in 2007.{{Cite web|url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/iiml/bestnzpoems/BNZP07/contents.html|title=Best New Zealand Poems 2007|website=nzetc.victoria.ac.nz|access-date=25 November 2017}} She has also published in a number of other literary journals including Sport,{{Cite web|url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Ba29Spo-t1-body-d6.html|title=Jessica Le Bas — incognito, my love|website=NZETC|access-date=25 November 2017}} Blackmail Press,{{Cite web|url=http://nzpoetsonline.homestead.com/Index24.html|title=Blackmail Press 24|website=Blackmail Press|access-date=25 November 2017}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.blackmailpress.com/index13.html|title=BMP13 The 36 inch bust issue|website=Blackmail Press|access-date=25 November 2017}} and Trout.{{Cite web|url=http://www.trout.auckland.ac.nz/journal/14/14_46.html|title=Jessica Le Bas: snap shots|last=Le Bas|first=Jessica|website=Trout|access-date=25 November 2017}} She was featured in issue 32 of Poetry New Zealand.{{Cite web|url=http://www.poetrynz.net/archives/issue-32/|title=Poetry New Zealand Issue 32|website=Poetry New Zealand|access-date=25 November 2017}}
Awards
Incognito won the 2007 NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards/past-winners-by-author?letter=L|title=Past Winners by Author|website=New Zealand Book Awards Trust|access-date=25 November 2017}}
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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.booksellers.co.nz/news/winner-announced-sarah-broom-poetry-prize-2019|title=Winner announced ‐ Sarah Broom Poetry Prize 2019|website=Booksellers|access-date=21 May 2019}}
Le Bas has also won the New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition, 2005 Bravado Poetry Competition, and been shortlisted in the Landfall Essay Competition.{{Cite web|url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/iiml/bestnzpoems/BNZP07/t1-g1-t15-body1-d2.html|title=Jessica Le Bas - Best New Zealand Poems 2007|website=nzetc.victoria.ac.nz|access-date=25 November 2017}}
In 2019, she won the 2019 Sarah Broom Poetry Prize{{Cite web|url=https://www.sarahbroom.co.nz/2019/05/18/winner-announced-%E2%80%90-sarah-broom-poetry-prize-2019/|title=Winner announced ‐ Sarah Broom Poetry Prize 2019|website=Sarah Broom Poetry Prize|access-date=20 May 2019}} with a short collection of poems titled Large Ocean Islands that arose from living and working in the Cook Islands between 2017 and 2020.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sarahbroom.co.nz/poetry/jessica-le-bas/|title=Sarah Broom Poetry Prize - Winner 2019 Jessica Le Bas|website=Sarah Broom Poetry Prize|access-date=17 Feb 2023}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Bas, Jessica}}
Category:University of Auckland alumni
Category:New Zealand fiction writers
Category:New Zealand women poets