Jeffrey wins 2020 Anne Elder Award for ‘Dead Bolt’

Australian Poetry has named Ella Jeffrey as the winner of the 2020 Anne Elder Award for her debut poetry collection Dead Bolt (Puncher & Wattmann).

‘Ella Jeffery’s Dead Bolt is an exploration of domestic living that consistently, and brilliantly, executes through uniquely crafted observations and imagery,’ the judges said of the winning book. ‘This image-work folds each poem into origami; in the reading, images unfold—and then continue to unfold—to reveal new and unexpected facets. Jeffery’s clarity and control of language and form mean poem after poem impresses, and the collection overall is almost faultless.’

The judges for the 2020 award were Marcella Polain, Rae White and Toby Fitch, who are all alumni of the award, having won or been commended for their own first collections. They selected two highly commended collections, Cadaver Dog by Luke Best and Ask Me About the Future by Rebecca Jessen (both UQP).

The Anne Elder Award, established in 1977 and valued at $1000, is awarded annually to the best sole-authored first book of poetry in Australia. The joint winners of last year’s award were Cham Zhi Yi for blur by the (Subbed In) and Gareth Sion Jenkins for Recipes for the Disaster (5 Islands Press).

Fore more information about this year’s winning and highly commended collections, see the Australian Poetry website.

Category: Awards Local news