Max Harris Poetry Award 2007 results
From Poetry and Poetics Centre
The Poetry and Poetics Centre committee is pleased to announce the winners of the commendations and the $3000 award for the 2007 edition of the Max Harris Poetry Award. The two judges of this year’s award were Emeritus Professor Tom Shapcott (The University of Adelaide) and Dr Ffion Murphy (Edith Cowan University). Their judges’ report and comments on the awarded poems are outlined below.
Winner:
'Scent, Comb, Spoon', Jan Owen, SA
Highly Commended:
'Farewell', Katerina Kokkinos-Kennedy, VIC
'The Crows', Sarah K Bell, VIC
Commended:
'Postcards from the Coast', Mark Miller, NSW
'Captain Foster Fyans', Joan Kerr, VIC
Click here to read the awarded poems.
Judges' report
This year’s competition attracted 506 entries. The poems cover a broad range of styles and forms, though the majority are free verse. They also range across many topics – nature, country life, city life, love, sex, illness, loss, failure, change, chance, historical characters and events, aging, art, poetry, animals (especially insects and birds), journeys, birth, death… Some poems express anguish and others humour. Some are argumentative, some declarative, some questioning, and some confessional. We considered many admirable, but our job was to choose just a few for special consideration and, from this select group, a winner. We are delighted to announce the following awards:
Winner:
- ‘Scent, Comb, Spoon’
- ‘a well crafted poem full of intriguing resonances on the theme of memory and association. The poem spins a chain of possibilities and disharmonies but always returns to the idea of the value of what we have experienced. This is a poem of turns and surprises and we enjoyed it more with each reading.’
Highly Commended:
- ‘Farewell’
- ‘a wonderfully wry, frank and moving account of a death in the family – a perfect melding of black humour and tenderness.’
and
- ‘The Crows’
- ‘a bold poem executed with dark glee and a willingness to take risks that seem, somehow, to suit the subject.’
Commended:
- ‘Postcards from the Coast’
- ‘for its elegance and clear awareness of how a Japanese or Chinese focus on the image may leave much unsaid and a great deal implied. The poet shows great restraint in this fine evocation of coastal colours, shapes, movements, sounds, tides and transitions.’
and
- ‘Captain Foster Fyans’
- ‘for its succinct, well-wrought and thought-provoking depiction of a historical character that manages to point the finger, so we may all squirm.’
Emeritus Professor Tom Shapcott and Dr Ffion Murphy
