Announcing the results of the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets

The $6000 major prize in the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets has been won by Luke Fischer with his poem, ‘Augury?’

The second place, a prize of $2000, has been awarded to Fiona Hile for ‘The owl of Lascaux’, with the third prize, of $1000, awarded to Myles Gough for ‘The watchmaker’s wrath’.

The Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize is one of the most lucrative and prestigious literary prizes in Australia, and is the only major prize dedicated to new and emerging poets. The prize was judged by Overland poetry editor, Peter Minter. In his judge’s report, Minter describes ‘Augury?’ as a contemporary ‘ramble poem’, a genre with a rich history ‘where the complexities of human ambivalences are made ineluctably central to the experience of nature’. Fischer’s poem, Minter says, ‘balances epistemological certitude on a hinge of doubt’.

All three poems, along with Minter’s report, will be published in Overland 210, which is currently at the printers. ‘All the poems stand out for being “honest and well crafted”,’ writes Minter. ‘To witness such aesthetic authenticity in the writing of new and emerging poets is the great gift of the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets.’

The prize, made possible with the generous support of the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, will re-open on 1 September, 2013.

In the meantime, consider taking out a subscription to Overland, ensuring you’re one of the first to read these prize-winning poems.