Holland-Batt wins 2023 Margaret and Colin Roderick Award

Sarah Holland-Batt has won the $30,000 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award for her poetry collection, The Jaguar (UQP).

‘It’s rare for a volume of poetry to be so coherent: it functions as a complete whole, a volume not just a collection,’ said judging panel chair Alan Lawson. ‘The Jaguar is astonishing for its use of rhetorical, poetic and metaphoric language to convey strong, sometimes searing and sometimes intimate emotions. Holland-Batt almost overwhelms us as she uses every poetic tool at her disposal to come to terms with her grief.’

Holland-Batt’s collection was chosen from a shortlist of seven, announced in August. The Jaguar has been recognised in numerous awards, including winning the Stella Prize and the Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance.

Founded in 1967 and administered by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies (FALS) at James Cook University, the award recognises the best original book, regardless of genre, published in Australia the previous calendar year that deals with ‘any aspect of Australian life’. The winner of last year’s award was Emily Bitto for her novel Wild Abandon (A&U).

Holland-Batt accepted the award at a ceremony at James Cook University’s Bebegu Yumba Campus on 6 October. For more information, see the FALS website.

Category: Awards Local news