Brooks wins 2023 Judith Wright Poetry Prize

Overland has announced that Andrew Brooks is the winner of the 2023 Judith Wright Poetry prize, for his poem ‘Celestial Tree’.

Brooks is a lecturer in media and culture, living on unceded Wangal land. He is one half of the critical art collective Snack Syndicate (with Astrid Lorange), co-organiser of the Infrastructural Inequalities research network and a member of publishing collective Rosa Press.

‘Celestial Tree’ is described by Overland as ‘a poem about the grease of empire’. The winning poem was chosen from a shortlist of eight announced earlier this month.

Two runners-up were also announced: William Fox for his poem ‘Febrile’ (second place), and Chloe Mayne for her poem ‘Larapuna’ (third place).

The Judith Wright Poetry Prize has run since 2007, seeking entries from new and emerging poets with no more than one published collection of poems. As the winning poet, Brooks will receive $6000, while the second and third prizes are $2000 and $1000, respectively. Judges Andy Jackson, Autumn Royal, Elena Gomez and Toby Fitch reviewed almost 700 entries for this year’s prize.

Overland will publish all three winning poems in its print publication.

Last year’s Judith Wright Poetry Prize winner was Abbra Kotlarczyk for the poem ‘Viriditas/Little Big Scrub Poem’.

Photo credit: Jacquie Manning.

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