On learning of his win, Dr Hansen commented: ‘“Seeing Truganini” was written specifically for the Calibre Prize, largely in the hope that I might be able to share that experience with ABR’s wide general readership; I am thrilled that this is now happening. I am immensely grateful to the judges of the prize, to ABR and to Copyright Agency Limited for having given me both the motive and the opportunity to add my two bob’s worth to one particular and particularly important national conversation.’

In ‘On Being Odd’, Lorna Hallahan, who teaches at Flinders University, writes about a different form of stigmatisation: the marginalisation of the different, the disabled, the supposedly ‘odd’ or ‘grotesque’. Dr Hallahan writes: ‘To share the Calibre 2010 prize is really to celebrate the essay as a way to provoke ourselves and our readers with new questions and to probe the personal while heeding the wise. As well as being delighted that my efforts at exploring oddness and staring are recognised in this prize, I am grateful to ABR and CAL for giving the essay such prominence. Long may it continue!’

ABR, too, is most grateful to CAL for enabling us to present this essay prize, and for advancing the cause of essay writing in this country.

Patrick White On Film

Peter Craven, writing in The Age on 23 January 2010, bemoaned the likely collapse, for financial reasons, of the proposed film of Patrick White’s The Eye of the Storm. Craven remarked: ‘If we cannot come together over this one … we might as well give up on this culture business. It really will be a case of poor fellow, my country.’ Happily, the money was raised and filming has begun in Melbourne. The film will star Charlotte Rampling as Elizabeth Hunter, Geoffrey Rush as Sir Basil Hunter and Judy Davis as the Princess de Lascabanes – truly an oneiric cast. Perhaps the film will be released in the great novelist’s centenary year (2012). It will be interesting to see if film distributors recognise its provenance.

Rodney Hall’s Memoir

We shouldn’t play favourites, but Advances was greatly impressed by Rodney Hall’s new memoir, the relentlessly lower-case and unapostrophised popeye never told you (Pier 9), an immensely vivid, detailed, impressionistic account of his childhood in Britain during World War II. Craig Munro, reviewing the memoir on page 20, writes: ‘His considerable skills as a novelist enable Hall to convey deep emotion through his child’s-eye view.’ This month, we publish an extract from popeye never told you. Courtesy of Pier 9, we also have ten signed copies of the book to present to new subscribers. 

ABR’s Poetry Prize

Anthony Lawrence has won the sixth ABR Poetry Prize, worth $4000. The judges – Ian Donaldson, Morag Fraser and Peter Rose – chose the poem ‘Domestic Emergencies’ from a field of just under 400 poems. Anthony Lawrence, who lives in Newcastle, has won several major awards. His most recent poetry collection is Bark (2008). ABR and the judges thank all the poets who entered the competition and congratulate the other shortlisted poets: Diane Fahey, Jillian Pattinson, Philip Salom and Ynes Sanz.

Silent Poets

This year the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards will also recognise literature for younger readers, with new awards for children’s and Young Adult fiction. The prize money is impressive: $100,000 in each category. But what of poetry?

Changes at ABR

Professor Terri-ann White, Director of UWA Publishing, has joined the ABR Board. The magazine, with offices in Melbourne and Adelaide, currently has eight board members: four in Melbourne; four in other states or territories. All of them are listed on the imprint page, along with our editorial advisers.

Love your Subo!

ABR is daily beguiled by publishers’ press releases. A recent favourite came from Wilkinson Publishing. Under the heading ‘Susan Boyle is no longer coming Downunder so here is the next best thing – a Book!’, Ms Miranda Young, abbreviating with abandon, wrote: ‘Disappointed no SUBO appearing in person this May – well timing itself perfectly here is a book that gives you her Life Story with pictures! Got to love that … The public can’t seem to get enough of this lady!’