Sterlin wins Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest Award

Meanjin (Brisbane) poet Svetlana Sterlin has won the 2023 Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest Award for her unpublished book-length collection ‘If Movement Were a Language’.

Selected from a shortlist of four, the collection will be published by Vagabond Press, with the author to receive $40,000.

The judges for the 2023 award were Cassandra Atherton, Jeanine Leane and Maxine Beneba Clarke. The panel described the winning collection as ‘captivating in its evocations of swimming in literal and metaphorical terms, and in its characterisation of the complexities of a family life at once supportive and salutary’. ‘Each of the poems is striking as its own self-contained sigh and collectively they develop a powerful narrative arc mapped out in language that is fresh, lyrical, stylish and brave.’

Sterlin was born in Aotearoa New Zealand to Russian/Jewish parents. She is a swimming coach, editor and poet who has written much of her recent work about her lived experience, often in swimming, which she said was one of the only constants growing up in a family that frequently moved. Sterlin was one of the writers longlisted for the 2023 Richell Prize and her work was also recognised in the 2023 State Library of Queensland Young Writers Award.

She said receiving the bequest was ‘an incredible honour’ and ‘the opportunity for my debut collection to be published with Vagabond is a dream come true’. ‘I cannot wait for the ripples of my poems to reach the shores I’ve been swimming towards for so long,’ said Sterlin.

Presented by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney, the Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest Award is presented to a female poet for a collection of poems that reflects Australian culture. This year is the fifth presentation of the biennial award. The 2021 winner was Emily Stewart for her manuscript ‘Running Time’, which was subsequently published by Vagabond Press in early 2022.

Category: Awards Local news