Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize
Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:06 pm
Hi All
I'm putting this here rather than under "Events" for a reason. It's about publicising a major current written poetry competition (first prize $2500!), but there's an interesting story that goes with it that others may wish to comment on.
Brenda was contacted by Meghann McGee on behalf of this competition and asked if it could be publicised on the ABPA website. Brenda replied that we usually only advertise bush poetry competitions, but that she'd pass the info on to those (like me) who write free verse as well. I then took the opportunity to write to Meghann and point out the significance of the perfectly reasonable assumption that the competition was not relevant to bush poets. I asked: "When was the last time a poem using metre and rhyme won the Bruce Dawe Prize?"
A reply came back from Associate Professor Laurie Johnson from USQ, who is the Chair of the Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize, and that reply is reproduced here (with Laurie's permission).
Dear Brenda and David,
I hope this finds you both well. Meghann has forwarded on to me your recent correspondence related to the Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize. Please let me take this opportunity to assure you that the competition in no way seeks to discourage bush poets or any poet who writes within a standard poetic form. While it is true that the last few years have been won by writers in free verse, there has in the past decade been a winner who used more conventional metre and rhyme (2006: Minotaura by Kate Middleton), and there are others who use internal rhymes and other formal modes that the judges consider hallmarks of what we call “poetic sensibility” when we assess each year’s applicants. In the years I have been judging in the prize, since 2003, we have also awarded commendations and places (depending on the prize structure in some years) to sonnets, villanelles, and, yes, bush poetry.
The judges certainly acknowledge the rich contribution of bush poetry and other conventional literary forms to Australia’s literary heritage. Within the curriculum that we teach, we make every effort to keep the love of poetry alive in all its forms, but especially by teaching skills in metrics and rhyme (I myself will be teaching this to first year English Lit students in a few weeks’ time). We would hope that the community of writers in this country, and the associations that continue to support these writers, will also continue to support the prize that we offer in honour of one of Australia’s foremost literary figures.
It is, unfortunately, true that we have received fewer entries in the last few years from poets that write in traditional modes. I sincerely hope the drop off in entries in these modes is not due to a public perception that the judges do not welcome such entries. Thank you, though, for bringing this perception to our attention—I will work with the team to ensure that we promote the openness of the Prize to all forms, and I hope I can convince you to give us another try in future. Please feel welcome to write to me directly if you have more feedback or thoughts on how we can improve in this area.
Kind regards,
Laurie
=========================================================
Associate Professor Laurie Johnson
President of ANZSA (Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association)
Chair, Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize
School of Arts and Communication
Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts
University of Southern Queensland
Toowoomba QLD 4350 Australia
So, in line with that, anyone interested can find all the necessary information on the competition website at: https://www.usq.edu.au/bela/school-of-a ... etry-prize
I have sent a long reply to Laurie, outlining many of the issues that have been discussed at length on this site (so I won't reproduce the details here), particularly emphasising the gulf between the genres and the contempt often shown for bush poetry in the broader poetry community. Which discourages us from entering rhyming verse in competitions like his. (I also pointed out that many bush poets view free verse as "alphabet soup"!) Here's one quote from my reply:
"Poetry in general is out of favour these days because so much of it doesn’t communicate effectively. Not in the way that the likes of Paterson, Lawson and Dennis did a century ago. Too much contemporary verse caters mainly for a very limited, essentially free verse, audience. This is by no means a new issue. It’s a discussion that’s been around for decades, but it needs continual repetition, and it bothers me that the big competitions still tend to reinforce exclusivity over and over again because they don’t support or encourage anything else."
It's good news that this competition welcomes all forms, but I urged Laurie to make this clearer in the competition guidelines.
Cheers
David
I'm putting this here rather than under "Events" for a reason. It's about publicising a major current written poetry competition (first prize $2500!), but there's an interesting story that goes with it that others may wish to comment on.
Brenda was contacted by Meghann McGee on behalf of this competition and asked if it could be publicised on the ABPA website. Brenda replied that we usually only advertise bush poetry competitions, but that she'd pass the info on to those (like me) who write free verse as well. I then took the opportunity to write to Meghann and point out the significance of the perfectly reasonable assumption that the competition was not relevant to bush poets. I asked: "When was the last time a poem using metre and rhyme won the Bruce Dawe Prize?"
A reply came back from Associate Professor Laurie Johnson from USQ, who is the Chair of the Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize, and that reply is reproduced here (with Laurie's permission).
Dear Brenda and David,
I hope this finds you both well. Meghann has forwarded on to me your recent correspondence related to the Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize. Please let me take this opportunity to assure you that the competition in no way seeks to discourage bush poets or any poet who writes within a standard poetic form. While it is true that the last few years have been won by writers in free verse, there has in the past decade been a winner who used more conventional metre and rhyme (2006: Minotaura by Kate Middleton), and there are others who use internal rhymes and other formal modes that the judges consider hallmarks of what we call “poetic sensibility” when we assess each year’s applicants. In the years I have been judging in the prize, since 2003, we have also awarded commendations and places (depending on the prize structure in some years) to sonnets, villanelles, and, yes, bush poetry.
The judges certainly acknowledge the rich contribution of bush poetry and other conventional literary forms to Australia’s literary heritage. Within the curriculum that we teach, we make every effort to keep the love of poetry alive in all its forms, but especially by teaching skills in metrics and rhyme (I myself will be teaching this to first year English Lit students in a few weeks’ time). We would hope that the community of writers in this country, and the associations that continue to support these writers, will also continue to support the prize that we offer in honour of one of Australia’s foremost literary figures.
It is, unfortunately, true that we have received fewer entries in the last few years from poets that write in traditional modes. I sincerely hope the drop off in entries in these modes is not due to a public perception that the judges do not welcome such entries. Thank you, though, for bringing this perception to our attention—I will work with the team to ensure that we promote the openness of the Prize to all forms, and I hope I can convince you to give us another try in future. Please feel welcome to write to me directly if you have more feedback or thoughts on how we can improve in this area.
Kind regards,
Laurie
=========================================================
Associate Professor Laurie Johnson
President of ANZSA (Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association)
Chair, Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize
School of Arts and Communication
Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts
University of Southern Queensland
Toowoomba QLD 4350 Australia
So, in line with that, anyone interested can find all the necessary information on the competition website at: https://www.usq.edu.au/bela/school-of-a ... etry-prize
I have sent a long reply to Laurie, outlining many of the issues that have been discussed at length on this site (so I won't reproduce the details here), particularly emphasising the gulf between the genres and the contempt often shown for bush poetry in the broader poetry community. Which discourages us from entering rhyming verse in competitions like his. (I also pointed out that many bush poets view free verse as "alphabet soup"!) Here's one quote from my reply:
"Poetry in general is out of favour these days because so much of it doesn’t communicate effectively. Not in the way that the likes of Paterson, Lawson and Dennis did a century ago. Too much contemporary verse caters mainly for a very limited, essentially free verse, audience. This is by no means a new issue. It’s a discussion that’s been around for decades, but it needs continual repetition, and it bothers me that the big competitions still tend to reinforce exclusivity over and over again because they don’t support or encourage anything else."
It's good news that this competition welcomes all forms, but I urged Laurie to make this clearer in the competition guidelines.
Cheers
David