Watson wins Indigenous poetry prize

Samuel Wagan Watson has won the 2016 Scanlon Award for Indigenous Poetry for his collection Love Poems and Death Threats (UQP).

The judges said Watson’s voice is ‘provocative’ and his writing ‘assured and persuasive’. ‘He takes us on a journey where river and road are spiritual metaphors. The river gives life and meaning to his “meanderings”. On the road he covers miles of bitumen, weaves a dark satirical thread through the poems in this collection,’ said the judges.

Watson’s collection was chosen from a shortlist of three that included Tony Birch’s Broken Teeth (Cordite) and Alison Whittaker’s Lemons in the Chicken Wire (Magabala).

The biennial award, run by Australian Poetry and the Scanlon Foundation, is given to a poet for the best single-author collection of Aboriginal poetry published in the past two years. The award includes a $2000 cash prize.

For more information about the award, visit the Australian Poetry website here.

Category: Local news