AWARDS AND RESIDENCY PROMOTE POETRY IN QUEENSLAND
Published Friday, 07 September, 2007 at 09:15 PM
Minister for Education and Training and Minister for the Arts
The Honourable Rod Welford
Poetry moves into the spotlight with the announcement of two coveted poetry awards at the launch of the 2007 Queensland Poetry Festival (7-9 September) tonight, and the arrival of an international Poet in Residence.
Sarah Holland-Batt, from St Lucia, has been awarded the Arts Queensland 2007 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize for Unpublished Manuscript and Andrew Slattery, from Newcastle, has won the Arts Queensland 2007 Val Vallis Award for Unpublished Poetry.
Arts Minister Rod Welford said the awards supported emerging poets and celebrated the diversity of poetry as an artform.
“The standard of entries in this year’s awards was outstanding which reflects the talent of our emerging Queensland poets,” Mr Welford said.
“As the winner of the 2007 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, Ms Holland-Batt receives a $3000 cash prize and a publishing contract with University of Queensland Press.
“Judges described her winning entry, Aria, as ‘exciting and highly poised, giving real evidence of a new and distinctive voice in Queensland poetry’.
“Andrew Slattery, winner of the 2007 Val Vallis Award will receive $3000 for his poem Frameworkers.”
Mr Welford congratulated the award winners and also welcomed Irish poet Paul Durcan as this year’s Arts Queensland Poet in Residence.
“The Poet in Residence program enables a visiting poet to stay in Queensland for around six weeks to share their work and skills with local audiences,” he said.
“In addition to appearances at the Queensland Poetry Festival and the Brisbane Writers Festival (12-16 September), Mr Durcan will present readings in Rockhampton, Longreach and Maleny in September.”
Paul Durcan is the Irish Professor of Poetry at Trinity College, Dublin. He has received various poetry awards and his most recent collections are Cries of an Irish Caveman: New Poems (2001) and The Art of Life (2004).
2007 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Award for an Unpublished Manuscript
Winner - Sarah Holland-Batt, Aria, St Lucia
Highly Commended -Jaya Savage, Clean Energy, Bribie Island (2006 Thomas Shapcott Award winner)
Highly Commended -Simon Patton, Mock Eden, West End
Highly Commended -Siall Waterbright, Orison, South Brisbane
2007 Arts Queensland Val Vallis Award for Unpublished Poetry
Winner - Andrew Slattery, Frameworkers, Newcastle, New South Wales
Second - Dan Disney, Mothered: an elegy, Victoria
Third - Siall Waterbright, The Ice Palace, South Brisbane
Stuart Cooke, Soft Berlin Corrosion, ACT