Victoria Premier's Literary Awards 2024 - Poetry Shortlist

 

Kangaroo Paw has been shortlisted for the 2024 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for poetry. Thank you so much to the judge/s for your kind remarks in the judge's report:

"Kangaroo Paw is tightly focused on observing indigenous and introduced flora; it is a collection reminiscent of a series of miniaturist artworks. The writing is characterised by controlled intensity and formal play – renewing a sense of how words work to sort and label – while its visual patterning typifies mathematical precision. The poems in its opening sequence adopt an unusual formal approach: they create gaps within poems which characterise and embody the growth patterns of open bushland. In contrast, other poems mirror non-indigenous flora through the use of more enclosed traditional forms. We were struck by the collection’s insistence on poetic form (inflected by Roberts’ training as a visual artist), in this era of often looser poetics. This is a subtle and enigmatic work that invites re-reading."