Stavanger shortlisted for €10k Moth Poetry Prize
Australian poet David Stavanger has been shortlisted for the €10,000 (A$15,930) Moth Poetry Prize for his poem ‘Octonaut’.
The prize is run by the publishers of international art and literature magazine The Moth, based in rural Ireland, and the four shortlisted poems will appear in the spring issue of the magazine. A single poet is asked to judge the prize blind each year, and this year’s judge is Jacob Polley.
Stavanger’s poem ‘Octonaut’ is shortlisted alongside work by American poets Margaret Park Haas and Jude Nutter, and Canadian poet Steen Heighton.
The winner, who will be announced on 2 May at Poetry Ireland in Dublin, will receive €10,000 (A$15,930) and the shortlisted authors will each receive €1000 (A$1590).
Stavanger said: ‘The news that this poem is shortlisted is particularly special for me as it captures something essential about being a parent—the interzone between understanding and confusion—and this is one of those rare times a poem came out whole with clarity for its subject matter. Having a waking dream affirmed is truly surreal.’
Stavanger won the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize in 2013, and in 2013-14 was Australia’s first Reader-in-Residence, based at Brisbane Square Library. He was was co-director of the Queensland Poetry Festival from 2015 to 2017.
For more information about the award, see The Moth website. To read the shortlisted poems, see the Irish Times.
Tags: David StavangerMoth Poetry Prizepoetry
Category: Awards Local news
