AustLit NewsPoetry

Josephine Ulrick Winners Announced

Wed, 09 May 2012 02:57:00 GMT

The winners of the 2012 Josephine Ulrick prizes have been announced in Queensland. The prizes, for a short story and for poetry, are administered by Griffith University's School of Humanities.

The 2012 literature prize was awarded to Matthew Lamb, editor of the Review of Australian Fiction, for his short story ‘Long Grass over Home’. Lamb describes his story as revealing what happens when you ‘lift the crust of the dung heap and let the stench rise’.

Melbourne writer Maria Zajkowski has won the poetry prize for the second year running. In 2011, a suite of poems from her manuscript ‘The Ascendant’ won the award; this year, another suite from the same manuscript has taken out the $20,000 prize. Zajkowksi says her poems are ‘about existence, and that death is not non-existence. They focus on gain as much as loss, and how inseparable these two things are.’ (Griffith University media release, 4 May 2012)

Zajkowski will use her prize money to spend some time in Europe; Lamb hopes his win will ‘help legitimise his work, particularly with the [Review of Australian Fiction] to promote and disseminate Australian fiction and short stories.

More information on the Josephine Ulrick prizes is available on the award website.

Mark Tredinnick Wins Inaugural Montreal Poetry Prize

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:32:02 GMT

New South Wales poet Mark Tredinnick is the winner of a new international poetry award – the $50,000 Montreal Poetry Prize. Tredinnick’s poem, ‘Walking Underwater’, was selected from over 3,000 entries and read ‘blind’ by a panel of distinguished poets including former UK Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion.

‘Walking Underwater’ was written in 2010 while Tredinnick was visiting Portland, Oregon. Motion describes the ‘big, bold-thinking’ poem as one in which ‘ancient themes (especially the theme of our human relationship with landscape) are re-cast and rekindled’.

Eight poems by Australians were included on the award’s shortlist (including two by Tredinnick). The poems can be viewed (and in some instances, heard) on the Montreal Poetry Prize website.

Canadian publisher Véhicule Press has produced a book comprising all the longlisted titles. Information on the Global Poetry Anthology is available here. And Tredinnick’s website provides detailed information on his winning poem’s background and meaning. He also comments on the site that, as ‘poets live in debt’, winning the prize ‘will go toward paying some of mine down, but it will also ‘finance more of the silence upon which the making of poems depends’.

Kinsella Withdraws from T. S. Eliot Prize

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:02:33 GMT

John Kinsella has withdrawn from the 2011 T. S. Eliot Prize shortlist due to ethical concerns over sponsorship. The prestigious award, offered by the UK Poetry Book Society, is being sponsored for the first time by hedge funds manager Aurum. (The new arrangement follows the loss of funding from the UK Arts Council).

Kinsella received information on the fund from fellow prize-nominee Alice Oswald. He then released a statement withdrawing his collection Armour from the shortlist. Kinsella said: ‘I regret that I must do this at a particularly difficult time for the Poetry Book Society but the business of Aurum does not sit with my personal politics and ethics’.

Oswald has also withdrawn from the shortlist, leaving eight contenders for the 2011 prize. The winner will be announced in London on 16 January. For further information on the T.S. Eliot Prize, visit the Poetry Book Society’s website. And for Kinsella's view on the potential for poets to bring about 'positive social, ethical and political change', see his article 'Keeping Poetry outside the Comfort Zone', posted on the New Statesman website on 13 December 2011.

UTS Appoints Inaugural CAL Chair in Australian Poetry

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:54:09 GMT

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has appointed Robert Adamson to hold the inaugural CAL Chair in Australian Poetry. The three-year position, beginning in February 2012, has been modelled on the Oxford Professor of Poetry role and will require a commitment of one day per week.

Declaring himself ‘absolutely thrilled’ with the appointment, Adamson said that when Seamus Heaney took up the Oxford Chair ‘he lifted the profile of poetry in the UK and was tremendously popular. I intend to follow this example and inspire more people to read, write and enjoy poetry.’ Adamson hopes the Chair will become ‘a vital and continuing tradition’ and will enhance poetry’s status in Australia.

The full media release, including comment from UTS Head of Creative Practices Professor John Dale, is available on the UTS website. Comments from the Copyright Agency Limited can be read on the CAL website.

Johnno Award for Graham Nunn

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 04:29:44 GMT

Queensland’s ‘Mister Poetry’, Graham Nunn, has received the 2011 Johnno Award (named after David Malouf's 1975 novel, Johnno) for his outstanding contribution to writing in Queensland. Nunn, a poet, teacher and publisher, was artistic director of the Queensland Poetry Festival from 2004 to 2007. He also established Brisbane's Riverbend Poetry Series and was a founding member of Speedpoets.

Nunn received the award from Queensland Writers Centre chair Kevin Gillespie during a function at the State Library of Queensland. Gillespie told Brisbane’s Courier-Mail newspaper that Nunn's 'strong passion and commitment to poetry in Queensland' had earned him the ‘Mister Poetry’ moniker. ‘Graham's work builds capacity and community at a grassroots level’. ('Nunn Rewarded for Dedication')

To follow some of Nunn's writing, see his poetry and music blog, Another Lost Shark.

Robert Gray Recognised with Emeritus Award

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 02:39:45 GMT

Poet Robert Gray is the recipient of this year’s $50,000 Emeritus Award from the Australia Council. The award ‘acknowledges the achievements of eminent literary writers 60 years of age and over who have made outstanding and lifelong contributions to Australian literature’.

Professor Dennis Haskell, Chair of the Australia Council Literature Board, announced the award, saying: ‘Robert Gray’s poems put him in a rare class of world poets whose work is likely to survive into the next century and beyond ... Gray has the best eye in Australian poetry and his work is notable for its sharp visual images ... His memoir of 2008, The Land I Came Through Last, is a work so lyrical it reads like a long prose poem.’

Gray and fellow poet Geoffrey Lehmann released the anthology Australian Poetry since 1788 in October 2011. Professor Haskell describes the collection as ‘the largest and most comprehensive anthology of Australian poetry ever published’ and suggests that with this collection and Gray’s own work, Gray has become ‘an important force in the preservation of our poetic heritage’.

The Australia Council's complete media release for the Emeritus Award is available here.

Robert Adamson Wins Prestigious Patrick White Award

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:33:15 GMT

Robert Adamson has claimed the 2011 Patrick White Award for an author 'who has made a contribution to Australian Literature' but 'who may not have received due recognition for that contribution'.

The judges' citation notes that Adamson first came to prominence in the 1960s as part of the so-called 'Generation of '68', a group of poets committed to experimentation. 'For over four decades he has continued to chart new poetic territory. He is a master of his craft, interrogating the ability of language to convey lived, visceral experience.' The judges further noted that Adamson is ‘one of Australia’s truly great poets of place. His place is the Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney ... The Hawkesbury operates as both a real and imaginative homeland in his poetry.’

Adamson's poetic mastery of place is evident in his 2011 Blake Prize-winning poem, 'Via Negativa: The Divine Dark'. The two-part poem is available online on the Blake Prize website.

David Brooks Podcast

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:31:00 GMT

If you missed poet, scholar, and novelist David Brooks speaking with Margaret Throsby about The Sons of Clovis on 3 November, the talk is available as a podcast on the ABC FM website.

The book discusses the Ern Malley hoax and connections between Australian and French poetry.

'The Sons of Clovis' is the painting the gentlemen on the front cover are viewing. The painting is by Evariste-Vital Luminai and is held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

John Kinsella on Shortlist for T. S. Eliot Prize

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 05:16:00 GMT

John Kinsella is one of ten contenders for the 2011 T. S. Eliot Prize, an annual prize awarded by the UK Poetry Book Society. Kinsella's shortlisted title, Armour, is described by his publisher as 'his most spiritual work to date — and his most politically engaged'. (Pan Macmillan website)

The chair of the T. S. Eliot Prize judging panel, Gillian Clarke, said of the award: 'This most demanding of all poetry prizes bears the name of a great twentieth century poet. A great book must win. The shortlist emerged with some pain but no dispute.'

The winner will be announced in London on 16 January 2012 at the T. S. Eliot Prize Award Ceremony. For further information, see the Poetry Book Society website.

Favourite Love Poems Sought

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 05:52:00 GMT

Australian Poetry is seeking submissions for Australia's favourite love poem. The poem may reflect 'love of a person, place, animal, sensation or an abstract concept. It might be a satire on the whole notion of love. It might also be the lyrics to a song by an Australian songwriter.'

If you have a favourite poem or song lyric, send the title of the poem and any link or reference to it to admin@australianpoetry.org by 31 January 2012.

Robert Adamson Wins Blake Poetry Prize

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 03:15:30 GMT

Robert Adamson's 'Via Negativa: The Divine Dark' is the winner of the 2011 Blake Poetry Prize. The judges described Adamson's two-part sequence as 'a powerful, visually striking, intelligent poem which explores complex ideas associated with negative theology in a humble but resonant way.'