Published in Overland Issue 215 Winter 2014 · Writing / Culture Judges’ report for the Nakata Brophy Prize Peter Minter and Tony Birch The winning entry is Jessica Hart’s ‘Land Mountain’. Jessica is to be commended for two very strong poems, with ‘Nouveau’ also being highly rated by the judges. Both her poems were striking in their sophistication and elegant use of language. Second place went to Elijah Loutitt’s ‘Blackground’ for its great intertwining of language, imagery and political message. Third was awarded to Jared Field’s innovative ‘Time and other observations’. The judges were impressed by the overall quality of the poems, which demonstrated both passion and a broad use of genres. An impressive start to the Nakata Brophy Short Fiction and Poetry Prize for Young Indigenous Writers. Peter Minter Peter Minter is a leading Australian poet and writer on poetry and poetics, and Overland’s outgoing poetry editor. More by Peter Minter › Tony Birch Tony Birch is the author of Shadowboxing, Father’s Day, Blood, The Promise and Ghost River. He is currently research fellow in the Moondani Balluk Academic Centre at Victoria University. More by Tony Birch › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 11 December 202411 December 2024 · Writing The trouble Ken Bolton’s poems make for me, specifically, at the moment Linda Marie Walker These poems doom me to my chair and table and computer. I knew it was all downhill from here, at this age, but it’s been confirmed. My mind remains town-size, hemmed in by pine plantations and kanite walls and flat swampy land and hills called “mountains”. 17 July 202417 July 2024 · Writing “What is it that remains of us now”: witnessing the war on Palestine with Suheir Hammad Dashiell Moore The flame of her poetry scorches the states of exceptions that allow individual and state-sponsored violence to continue, unjustified, and unhistoricised. As we engage with her work, we are reminded that "chronic survival" is not merely an act of enduring but a profound declaration of existence.