ACT Poetry Prize 2003-2014
2013
In 2013 the ACT Poetry Prize was awarded for an outstanding poem written by an ACT-based poet. One hundred and twenty eight (128) entries were submitted. They were judged by a panel of poetry peers which included Ms Maureen Bettle, Associate Professor Paul Magee and Dr Adrian Caesar.
The winner was well-known Canberra poet and writer Lesley Lebkowicz, who received a cash prize of $3000 for her poem Inside. Two poems were shortlisted and received a prize of $1000 each. They were Emily Kngwarreye by Elizabeth Lawson and Stabat Mater by Libby Porter.
The poems are reproduced below with the permission of ArtsACT.
Inside by Lesley Lebkowicz (Winning Entry)
Outside the women’s room avenues unfurl
and the city floats away.
In the ward they are each other’s world.
One woman announces, over and over,
The doctor says my bones are chalk.
She speaks with shock and pride that such
a thing should choose her: a savage miracle.
Inside her, bone sheared off from itself like
limestone in a private landslide – and she fell.
Visitors arrive with fruit and DVDs.
Like the doctors they’re upright.
They talk and are loved but it’s each other
the women watch: only they know
how bones collapse like bamboo scaffolding
in some country far away.
Stabat Mater by Libby Porter (Shortlisted Entry)
He was sixteen and a half
you said.
Like small children, who announce
their slow-lived years
In fractions,
wanting to compress the days
running up to that next lovely number.
Whereas for you,
If you could stretch them
endlessly
and make a lifetime of sixteen and a half,
you would.
For you
the sweet half is the final fraction,
seventeen an affront.
There is no rounding up
to the beautiful prime.
Emily Kngwarreye by Elizabeth Lawson (Shortlisted Entry)
Her studio is kids, dogs, brushes, earth and light,
under-breath song water over pebbles.
Her eyes shine sky. Desert-swirl
centres her canvas. No other compass.
Minute hands lift to scatter Milky Ways,
desert dots pulsing red red earth.
Her now is infinite distance,
points of colour veiling story in story,
her nearest meaning
yam, rock, bird-prints,
frail eggs breaking open.
Women are gathering everlastings,
Ahalkere’s trillion stars,
while somewhere galleries
ripple and crack, pester
which way to hang galaxies?
Emily glances up.
Down.
Your business. I paint.
2012
Following a review of the ACT Poetry Prize, the ACT Government developed a number of initiatives to support poetry activities in the ACT.
- A new ACT Poetry Prize. This prize, for a single poem, will be available to ACT-based poets and is valued at a total of $5,000 ($3,000 for the winner and $1,000 for two runners-up). Entries will open later this year.
- A Centenary Poetry in ACTION program. Poetry in ACTION, which sees poems by Canberra based artists placed on buses, has been operating for some years. For 2013, ten poems with a Canberra 100 theme will be selected directly from the Canberra community to appear on buses during the Centenary year. The successful poets will each receive $500. Entries will open later this year.
- Youth Poetry Slams beginning 2013 in ACT schools, valued at $10,000.
To accommodate these new initiatives the previous ACT Poetry Prize categories is no longer offered.
2011
Click the hyperlinked title to read the manuscript poem in PDF, or to find the publication in the ACT Public Library. Our thanks to ArtsACT for permission to reproduce the poems.
Rosemary Dobson Award | David Campbell Award | Judith Wright Award | Alec Bolton Award |
|---|---|---|---|
for an unpublished poem by an Australian poet | for an unpublished poem by an ACT poet | for a published collection by an Australian poet | for an unpublished manuscript by an Australian poet |
Winner (joint) Murphy, Lizz. | Winner | WinnerShelfield, Anne. | WinnerChevalier, Julie. Darger - a sequence of poems |
| Commended Dunne, Lyle. Cattle Grids Holt, Lucy. Lintermans, Tony. | CommendedColeman, David. Last coffee Page, Geoff. | Commended Holt, Lucy. Patience, Mutiny Nicholson, Anna Kerdijk. Potter, Claire. White, Petra. | CommendedKeates, Carmen. Second-Hand Attack Dog Lawrence, Anthony. Lintermans, Tony. |
2010
Click the hyperlinked title to read the manuscript poem in PDF, or to find the publication in the ACT Public Library. Our thanks to ArtsACT for permission to reproduce the poems.
Rosemary Dobson Award | David Campbell Award | Judith Wright Award | Alec Bolton Award |
|---|---|---|---|
for an unpublished poem by an Australian poet | for an unpublished poem by an ACT poet | for a published collection by an Australian poet | for an unpublished manuscript by an Australian poet |
Winner | Winner (joint) Cottier, P.S. | WinnerBoyle, Peter. Apocrypha | WinnerPattionson, Jillian. The Infinite Library |
Highly Commended | Highly CommendedAlbiston, Jordie. the sonnet according to 'm' | Highly CommendedMiller, Mark. Scanning the Horizon | |
Commended Leber, Michelle. | CommendedCliff, Paul. Edgar, Suzanne. | Commended Plunkett, Felicity. Vanishing Point Jones, Emma | CommendedTredinnick, Mark. Rules for Walking |
Shortlisted Liversidge, Ray. Stokes, John. Treddinick, Mark. | Shortlisted | ShortlistedHammial, Philip. Skin Theory Hawthorne, Susan. |
2009
Click the hyperlinked title to read the manuscript poem in PDF, or to find the publication in the ACT Public Library. Our thanks to ArtsACT for permission to reproduce the poems.
Rosemary Dobson Award | David Campbell Award | Judith Wright Award | Alec Bolton Award |
|---|---|---|---|
for an unpublished poem by an Australian poet | for an unpublished poem by an ACT poet | for a published collection by an Australian poet | for an unpublished manuscript by an Australian poet |
Winner | Winner | WinnerHolland-Batt, Sarah | Winner |
Highly CommendedOwen, Jan. | Highly CommendedHolt, LK. | ||
CommendedSlattery, Andrew. Capes, Ashley. | CommendedUnikowski, Isi. | ||
Shortlisted Disney, Dan. Kroll, Jerri. | Shortlisted Foulcher, John. | Shortlisted Harrison, Martin. Polain, Marcella. Steele, Peter. | ShortlistedLeach, Roland. Cahill, Michelle. |
2008
Click the hyperlinked title to read the poem in PDF. Our thanks to ArtsACT for permission to reproduce the poems.
Rosemary Dobson Award | David Campbell Award | Judith Wright Award | Alec Bolton Award |
|---|---|---|---|
for an unpublished poem by an Australian poet | for an unpublished poem by an ACT poet | for a published collection by an Australian poet | for an unpublished manuscript by an Australian poet |
Winner | Winner | WinnerHill, Barry. | Winner |
Highly CommendedHarry, J S. | Highly CommendedKennedy, Cate. Kent, Jean. | ||
| CommendedBuck, Anna. A Council House in Heaven Cliff, Paul. Snake-Man (La Perouse) | CommendedLawson, Elizabeth. On the Undoing of Buttons Magee, Paul. Like words laid down in sleep | CommendedWattison, Meredith. Basket of Sunlight White, Petra. The Incoming Tide | |
Shortlisted | ShortlistedLebkowicz, Lesley. | Shortlisted Ryan, Brendan. | ShortlistedLeach-Pahloski, Carolyn. Ryan, Tracy. |
2007
Click the hyperlinked title to read the poem in PDF.
Rosemary Dobson Award | David Campbell Award | Judith Wright Award | Alec Bolton Award |
|---|---|---|---|
for an unpublished poem by an Australian poet | for an unpublished poem by an ACT poet | for a published collection by an Australian poet | for an unpublished manuscript by an Australian poet |
Winner | Winner | Joint WinnersKelen, S K. | Winner |
| Highly CommendedShenfield, Ann. Raised Signs | |||
Shortlisted | ShortlistedLello, Miranda. | Shortlisted | ShortlistedZajkowski, Maria. |
2006
Rosemary Dobson Award | David Campbell Award | Judith Wright Award | Alec Bolton Award |
|---|---|---|---|
for an unpublished poem by an Australian poet | for an unpublished poem by an ACT poet | for a published collection by an Australian poet | for an unpublished manuscript by an Australian poet |
Winner | Winner | WinnerHampton, Susan. | WinnerDougan, Lucy. |
Shortlisted | ShortlistedCeasar, Adrian. Jazz Elegy Fowler, Lesley. | Shortlisted Gould, Alan. Savige, Jaya. | ShortlistedMiddleton, Kate. Skovron, Alex. |
2005
Rosemary Dobson Award | David Campbell Award | Judith Wright Award | Alec Bolton Award |
|---|---|---|---|
for an unpublished poem by an Australian poet | for an unpublished poem by an ACT poet | for a published collection by an Australian poet | for an unpublished manuscript by an Australian poet |
Winner | Winner | Joint WinnerBurns, Joanne. | Winner |
Highly Commended | Highly CommendedKituai, Kathy. | ||
| CommendedLeach-Paholski, Carolyn. A Modern History of the EarPage, Geoff. QuattrocentoErwin, Russell. But Isn’t | Commended Edgar, Suzanne. | Commended | |
Shortlisted | Shortlisted | Shortlisted | ShortlistedEberhard, Adrienne. |
2004 ACT Poetry Award for unpublished poets
Winner
Geoff Page, Geoff, The Stalinists, the Taliban
Shortlisted
Abbot, Mathew. HieroglphBarbalet, Margaret. Drought and Crow, 4pmCrawford, Annie. Country and Pnomh Penh
Crawford, Annie. TorsoHetherington, Paul. AbschiedMartiniello, Jennifer Avriel. At GungahlinPage, Geoff. Remembering the Future
2003
WinnerWebb, Jennifer. The eternity know
Highly CommendedHetherington, Paul. The place of waterKituai, Kathy. If only
Kiraly, Eulea. Diamonds
All four poems published in Muse no. 235 Feb. 2003, ACTHL Location: H 700.99471 MUSE