2023 David Harold Tribe Poetry Award shortlist announced
From a record field of 522 submissions, the University of Sydney鈥檚听听announced the shortlist of seven entries for the 2023 David Harold Tribe Poetry Award. Currently the richest poetry prize in Australia, the award offers $20,000 for an original unpublished poem on any theme, up to 100 lines in length.
The David Harold Tribe Poetry Award has been made possible by a generous gift to the University by David Harold Tribe, author, and humanist. Awarded every five years, the prize aims to encourage the writing and enjoyment of poetry in Australia.鈥�
鈥淭he shortlist contains some incredible poems and represents a snapshot of the varied and urgent poetry currently being written in Australia,鈥� says Dr Toby Fitch, Lecturer in the听Master of Creative Writing听program and 2023 judge for the David Harold Tribe Poetry Award.听
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The prize winner will be announced in September at an award ceremony at the University of Sydney. Overland magazine will publish the winning entry.
The judges Toby Fitch, Ellen van Neerven and John Kinsella selected a shortlist of the following entries:
'Collections: a catalogue' by Anne Elvey
The six sections of 鈥楥ollections: a catalogue鈥� explore 鈥渢he library of unread books鈥� as a trope of colonial power, implying the erasure of Indigenous languages/knowledges by invasive Western culture. Occupying a respectful allyship and questioning settler mindsets, the poem鈥檚 fragmented lineation builds, unfurls, and increases in intensity and impact upon rereading.
'By a drowned valley estuary: three tracings' by Jake Goetz
Across three shimmering, fluid sections, 鈥楤y a drowned valley estuary: three tracings鈥� tracks histories of theft and extraction along water routes. The pulsating rhythms delve into the complex entanglements of how such militarised colonial culture evolves and 鈥渄estabilises one鈥檚 senses鈥�.
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'Open corpuscles of soil' by Daniel Holmes
In the hypnotic anaphora and listing of 'Open corpuscles of soil' mythical and modern symbols compete in a fiery Surrealist tract (unusual in Australian poetry) depicting violent capitalist wastelands. Its C茅saire-inspired syntax and imagery and ironic imperative compel us to reconsider our role in the grim reality that we can even construct such lists.
'Water under the bridge' by Jeanine Leane
鈥榃ater under the bridge鈥� is a taut, layered and lyrical poem about legacy and inheritance. Its tracing of the intergenerational narratives and traumas of Indigenous women and a particular kind of racial discrimination鈥攏ot appearing Black enough鈥攊s rendered poignant and aching by the total control over line and word.
'[e]state[ment]' by Tim Loveday
In the sharply satirical 鈥榌e]state[ment]鈥�, the deft use of brackets atomise words (鈥渁bout the bathrooms divide[nds]鈥�) so as to repurpose financial language and the advertising-speak of real estate. The poem disorientates the familiar and shows the horror behind the sell sell sell of what should be a safe space, the home, and what is the darker subtext of a home鈥攈omelessness.
'Poetry' by Gareth Morgan
This tight conversational lyric, with its wry and resigned tone, offers 鈥楶oetry鈥� as a way of being, of labouring under a 鈥渟ick economy鈥�, and shows how a poem can do and take in anything, and 鈥渋f you choose it: everything鈥�, while still subverting capital鈥檚 all-consuming nature.
'Passing Time' by Dominic Symes
鈥楶assing Time鈥� is an assemblage of contemporary life and writing poetry under lockdown, climate change and 鈥渃orporate Australia鈥�. The positives it disclaims are through irony the positives it claims鈥攖he persona takes on the role of absorbing the fetishisation of 鈥淎ustralian poetry鈥� and in doing so undoes the package deal of tropes, and all of this in playful longer lines that maintain its deadly tone (鈥渂ut what did you expect?鈥�).