ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

As you all probably realise, and David would definitely know, Melbourne Books did not call for poems for an award winning book devoted to bush verse and stories this year. They are putting out their cross-genre Award Winning Australian Writing, however.
I've just been told I will have a poem in there Snowy - The Reflections of a River. Has anyone else received the exciting news re inclusion of their poems?
BJ

Yes Brenda, although mine's free verse...it's called Every story must have...

One relevant sidelight, however, is that it won the Freexpression magazine's 2015 free verse competition, which was judged by our well-known and very successful bush poetry veteran, Ron Stevens, who's still winning awards and judging at age 89.

And congratulations on the inclusion of your poem!

Cheers
David

Thank you David and congratulations to you too. Your poem, which I read in Free Xpression is both topical and deeply moving.

Further on Ron Stevens, we finally met Ron (after several years conversing via post -- he doesn't do emailing) in March and happily, at 89, he is still a very vibrant, active and creative person. Ron has dedicated much of his poetic time to the subject of War and he is certainly not only a war veteran with first hand knowledge but, in my opinion, Australia's best contemporary poet writing about war -- certainly our most prolific in that area. He has put out a CD of his war poems and does not charge for this as he does not wish to make money out of such a tragic scenario. What a lovely, kind and dedicated man he is. Long may he be actively amongst us.
BJ

This is wonderful news indeed - sincere congratulations David and Brenda for this well deserved honour!

Congratulations David and Brenda on this well-deserved accolade!

As the new kid on the block I don't know about Melbourne Books and their endeavours - do they invite submissions for their publications, or do they glean their material from competition winners?

Cheers, Shelley

Thanks, Shelley. They invite submissions from both competition winners and organisers for AWAW. Their submission date is usually early June (June 7 this year), and they accept winning pieces (poetry and short stories) from the previous 12 months. You can find details at: http://www.melbournebooks.com.au/awaw.html

Cheers
David

Thank you for the clarification, David. So many websites, so little time (sigh)!! I've bookmarked it for future reference (perhaps??)

Cheers, Shelley

G'day Shelley,
I didn't know that there was an AWAW planned for 2015. Being a relative newcomer myself I only had reference to the books specific to bush verse and stories which have unfortunately been discontinued.
I got my invitation to submit to the 2015 AWAW direct from Melbourne Books when I won the Blackened Billy.
Thank you David for the information to all towards the future.
BJ

Huge congrats Brenda and David. Must be quite a thrill.
Wazza