Barnes wins Wesley Michel Wright Prize

Stuart Barnes has won the 2023 Wesley Michel Wright Prize for his poetry collection Like to the Lark (Upswell).

The prize selection committee described Barnes’ work as filled with ‘extraordinary poems, which draw their forms from across the planet, mix deep history and pop music, personal extremity and sophisticated humour, in such striking and memorable ways that each rereading proves even more rewarding than the last’.

Said Barnes: ‘It’s thrilling to think of my work in deeper conversation with previous winners’ works that have shaped and sustained my writing and me for many years.’ Barnes previously won the 2015 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize for his manuscript ‘The Staysails’, which was published as his first book, Glasshouses (UQP).

The Wesley Michel Wright Prize awards $4300 to an author of an original work of verse or poetry. Administered by University of Melbourne, the prize is supported by the will of university alumnus Wesley Michel Wright.

Category: Awards Local news