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Nine years ago Oxford University Press (UK) abandoned its vaunted poetry series, the Oxford Poets. This was a bitter business, much criticised around the world. Among the featured poets were Basil Bunting, Fleur Adcock, D.J. Enright and Gwen Harwood. Much of Peter Porter’s poetry appeared in the series, including his Collected Poems (1999), published just before the controversial sell-off. Some of the original poets, and collections, now appear in Oxford-Poets, an imprint of Carcanet Press. These include Joseph Brodsky’s Collected Poems in English and Elaine Feinstein’s great edition of Marina Tsvetaeva’s Selected Poems. Chris Wallace-Crabbe’s new collection, Telling a Hawk from a Handsaw, appears in Oxford Poets. Readers will recognise several poems which first appeared in ABR. Peter Porter is quoted on the back cover: ‘[Chris Wallace-Crabbe’s] allies are words and he uses them with the care of a surgeon and the flair of a conjuror.’
Barbara Jefferis was a feminist, a founding member of the Australian Society of Authors, its first woman president and, in the words of Thomas Keneally, ‘a rare being amongst authors, being both a fine writer but also organisationally gifted. She was a professional and internationally published writer long before most of us dreamed of such things’.
Entries close on 28 November 2008, except for novels published in December 2008, which have a closing date of 9 January 2009. For more information, go to: http://www.asauthors.org/.
City of Literature
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has named Melbourne as its second City of Literature. Edinburgh became the first in 2004. The Victorian government announced the bid in late 2006 and committed $9 million in the 2007–08 budget to support the Melbourne Writers’ Festival and establish the Centre for Books and Ideas at the State Library of Victoria.
The Centre will provide a home for a variety of literature bodies, including the Melbourne Writers’ Festival, the Victorian Writers’ Centre, the Emerging Writers’ Festival and the Australian Poetry Centre.
Arts Minister Lynne Kosky has predicted that Melbourne’s status as a City of Literature will have cultural and economic benefits for Melbourne and Victoria. ‘Melbourne is becoming very well known for its creativity. This just indicates that we have breadth in the creativity as well,’ she said.
Reviewing the situation
We have received so many entries in this year’s ABR Reviewing Competition – fifty per cent more than last year – we need more time to complete the judging. The winner, who will receive $1000, will now be announced, and his or her review published, in the November issue. Our thanks to the entrants for their forbearance.
Prime Minister’s Literary Awards
Philip Jones and Steven Conte are the winners of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. The announcement was made at a ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra on 12 September. Philip Jones’s Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers (Wakefield Press) took out the prize for non-fiction, while Steven Conte’s début novel, The Zookeepers War (Fourth Estate), won the inaugural award for fiction. The winners each received $100,000.
Staying in touch
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