Beveridge wins $10k ACU Poetry Prize

Sydney-based poet Judith Beveridge has won the $10,000 Australian Catholic University (ACU) Prize for Poetry for her poem ‘Two Houses’.

Responding to this year’s theme of ‘Love’, Beveridge’s poem is dedicated to her husband, fellow poet Stephan Edgar, and is a flashback to the first rental home she shared with Edgar in 2005.

ACU Prize for Poetry judge ACU emeritus professor Margot Hillel said: ‘Two Houses’ is a ‘tender and loving poem that clearly met this year’s theme’. ‘Despite appearing simple, it is actually quite complex and multi-layered, seamlessly weaving together the natural world, the imagery of the railway and the deeply personal and human,’ said Hillel. ‘It is also, however, accessible and very evocative of a newly found love.’

Beveridge’s poetry career has spanned 50 years, and the poet has won numerous other major prizes including the Christopher Brennan Award, the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, and several state literary awards. ‘I just feel so blessed to have found a passion in life. When I think of all the things that writing has given me, I just have to pinch myself,’ Beveridge said.

The second prize of $5000 went to Anthony Lawrence, for his poem about a couple’s playful conversations regarding the desire to have a child. The third prize of $3000 went to Victoria-based Tony Lintermans for his tribute to a childhood friend who tragically died in a road accident in late 2022.

All poems submitted this year were judged blind. The winning poem was chosen from over 500 entries.

The ACU Prize for Poetry is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President of ACU. Last year’s winner was Meredith Wattison for her poem ‘The Loose Wild Grace of It’. For more information about the prize, see the ACU website.

Category: Awards Local news