Category: Anne Elder Award

2024 Anne Elder Award judges panel announced

Australian Poetry has announced the three judges for the Anne Elder Award 2024 panel. They are Jeanine Leane, Theodore Ell, and Ella Skibeck-Porter. Theodore was the 2022 Anne Elder Award co-winner with Harry Reid (a judge last year) and Ella was Highly Commended in the 2023 Award.

2024 Anne Elder Award panel:

Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri writer, poet and teacher from the Murrumbidgee River near Gundagai. Her poetry has won numerous awards and prizes, including the David Harold Tribe Prize 2023. Jeanine is widely published in the areas of Aboriginal literature,  literary critique, and writing identity and difference. She is currently a First Nations Writer in Residence at the University of Melbourne where she previously taught Creative Writing and Aboriginal Literature. Jeanine’s current poetry collection, Gawimarra: Gathering  (University of Queensland Press), is short-listed for the VPLA 2024 Poetry Prize.

 

Theodore Ell is a writer and honorary lecturer in literature at the Australian National University. His poetry collection Beginning in Sight shared the 2022 Anne Elder Award. From 2018 to 2021 he lived in Lebanon, accompanying his wife on a diplomatic posting. Ell’s essay ‘Façades of Lebanon’, about witnessing the 2019 Lebanese revolution and surviving the 2020 Beirut port explosion, won the 2021 Calibre Essay Prize, and his memoir Lebanon Days was published in 2024. Ell’s poetry, essays, translations and non-fiction have been published in Australia, Italy, the United Kingdom and Lebanon.

 

Ella Skilbeck-Porter is a poet living in Naarm/Melbourne. Her debut collection These are Different Waters (Vagabond 2023) was shortlisted for the Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest and the Mary Gilmore Award and was Highly Commended in the Anne Elder Award. Her work has been widely published in journals and anthologies including Best of Australian Poems 2024, Living Systems: Poetry from Asia Pacific, HEAT, Otoliths, Rabbit and Cordite Poetry Review.

Anne Elder Award 2024

KEY DATES FOR THE 2024 AWARD, for first books published during 2024.

  1. Open call for entries – Monday, 27 January 2025.
  2. Close of entries – Monday, 17 March 2025, 5pm (Books must be postmarked no later than Monday, 17 March 2025.)
  3. The announcement of Judges takes place in February, after the award opens. There is a separate announcement on this.
  4. Winner announcement – May 2025.

 

Information and enquiries
Jacinta Le Plastrier
Email: ceo@australianpoetry.org
Note: Responses to enquiries will not be sent until after 15 January. Please note the new AP address is now: AP, Anne Elder Award, GPO Box 1753, Naarm/Melbourne, VIC 3000. The GPO box number is essential.

 

The award is named after Anne Elder (1918-1976), a dancer with the Borovansky Ballet in the 1940s who later in life became a notable poet. Her poetry attracted praise from many critics for its vigour, depth of reference and distinctive artistry.  Sponsored by the Australian Communities Foundation, this prestigious, national, annual award is for a sole-authored first book of poetry of 20-minimum pages in length, published in Australia.

Established in 1977, the prize has offered important recognition to poets at a critical point in their writing lives, and its alumni represent some of Australia’s best-known and highly respected poets. The winner is awarded $1,000, and there is also the opportunity for the judging panel, which for the 2024 Award will be announced in February, to award other books a commendation or special mention.

Books published between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024 are eligible for entry into the 2024 Anne Elder Award.

 

Submission Guidelines & Eligibility

  1. Open to Australian residents only.
  2. Entries must be in English. Bilingual volumes are acceptable as long as one of the languages in which the poems are written/translated is English.
  3. Book should be a sole-authored first collection of poetry published in 2024. Pub-dates will be checked.
  4. Book must be 20+ pages in length and have been legally deposited with the National Library of Australia.
  5. A book can only be considered a first volume if the author has not had previous volumes of poetry of 20+ pages published either in Australia or elsewhere.
  6. Chapbooks are also eligible if they meet the above guidelines—please note, if a poet has entered a chapbook previously, they cannot re-submit a longer collection.
  7. Entrants who have previously published in another genre are eligible as long as the entry submitted for this award is the first volume of poetry published by the author.
  8. Co-authored entries are not eligible for the award.
  9. First prize $1,000. Winners and commended entrants will receive a copy of Selected Poems of Anne Elder (Lauranton Press).
  10. The judges reserve the right not to award a prize.
  11. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

How to Enter

  1. Send 3 copies of the book to: Anne Elder Award Nominations, c/o Australian Poetry, GPO Box 1753, Melbourne/Naarm Vic 3000.
  2. Entry fee $35 (including GST) is payable at the time of entry. Payment is via an invoice generated by AP. Please contact ceo@australianpoetry.org so we can organise an invoice, to be paid via EFT. Please email ceo@australianpoetry.org also when you have mailed your copies so we can be in contact if they do not arrive.

Anne Elder Award —Australian Poetry announces Call-Out

KEY DATES FOR THE 2023 AWARD, for first books published during 2023.

  1. Open call for entries – Monday, 15 January 2024
  2. Close of entries – Tuesday, 12 March 2024, 5pm (AEST). Books must be postmarked no later than Tuesday, 12 March 2024.
  3. Winner announcement – May 2024

 

Information and enquiries
Jacinta Le Plastrier
Email: ceo@australianpoetry.org
Note: Responses to enquiries will not be sent until after 15 January. Please note the new AP address is now: AP, Anne Elder Award, GPO Box 1753, Naarm/Melbourne, VIC 3000. The GPO box number is essential.

 

The award is named after Anne Elder (1918-1976), a dancer with the Borovansky Ballet in the 1940s who later in life became a notable poet. Her poetry attracted praise from many critics for its vigour, depth of reference and distinctive artistry.  Sponsored by the Australian Communities Foundation, this prestigious, national, annual award is for a sole-authored first book of poetry of 20-minimum pages in length, published in Australia.

 

Established in 1977, the prize has offered important recognition to poets at a critical point in their writing lives, and its alumni represent some of Australia’s best-known and highly respected poets. The winner is awarded $1,000, and there is also the opportunity for the judging panel, which for the 2023 Award will be announced in late January, to award other books a commendation or special mention.

 

Books published between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2023 are eligible for entry into the 2023 Anne Elder Award.

 

Submission Guidelines & Eligibility

  1. Open to Australian residents only
  2. Entries must be in English. Bilingual volumes are acceptable as long as one of the languages in which the poems are written/translated is English
  3. Book should be a sole-authored first collection of poetry published in 2023
  4. Book must be 20+ pages in length and have been legally deposited with the National Library of Australia
  5. A book can only be considered a first volume if the author has not had previous volumes of poetry of 20+ pages published either in Australia or elsewhere
  6. Chapbooks are also eligible if they meet the above guidelines—please note, if a poet has entered a chapbook previously, they cannot re-submit a longer collection
  7. Entrants who have previously published in another genre are eligible as long as the entry submitted for this award is the first volume of poetry published by the author
  8. Co-authored entries are not eligible for the award
  9. First prize $1,000. Winners and commended entrants will receive a copy of Selected Poems of Anne Elder (Lauranton Press)
  10. The judges reserve the right not to award a prize
  11. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

 

 

How to Enter

  1. Send 3 copies of the book to: Anne Elder Award Nominations, c/o Australian Poetry, GPO Box 1753, Naarm/ Melbourne Vic 3000.
  2. Entry fee $35 (including GST) is payable at the time of entry. Payment is via an invoice generated by AP. Please contact Jacinta at ceo@australianpoetry.orgso she can organise an invoice, to be paid via EFT. Please also let her know when you have mailed your copies so she can be in contact if they do not arrive.