Tom Collins Poetry Prize winners named
Winning poems chosen from entries from across Australia in diverse themes, written in forms such as free verse, sonnets, prose, villanelle
Judge Rose Van Son said it had been a challenge to select the best poems from among the 379 submitted from around Australia in this year's competition.
Speaking at the well attended awards night March 19 at Mattie Furphy House, Van Son said the judging had not been easy.
"So many diverse subjects and themes: life, death, love, nature, travel, and everything in-between; so many forms of writing poetry: free verse, sonnets, prose, villanelle— so many good poems in this selection demanding to be reread," she said.
"So began my long list of reading; this 120 became a shorter list of 60, then 25, all commendable in some way."
"So began my long list of reading; this 120 became a shorter list of 60, then 25, all commendable in some way."
Van Son chose the following poems as the winners of the 2023 Tom Collins Poetry Prize. Congratulations to all.
First prize was $1,000, second $300, and third $100.
Read the judge's full report here.
First: Mother and Child, by Michael Robinson (WA).
Second: Two Visitation Dreams, by Alan Fyfe (WA)
Third: Wedge-tailed Eagle, by David Atkinson (NSW)
Highly Commended: Figure without a landscape, by Isi Unikowski (ACT)
Highly Commended: Window Birds, by Mark O’Flynn (NSW)
Commended: Looking for the River, by Kay Cairns (WA): Widow’s Walk, by David Terelinck (QLD); and
Commended: Internalising Everest, by Ross Jackson (WA).
The Tom Collins Poetry Prize began in 1975 and is named after Tom Collins, the pen name of Australian writer Joseph Furphy (1843 – 1912).