Smith wins 2024 Nakata Brophy Prize

Overland has announced that Yasmin Smith is the winner the 2024 Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers.

Smith receives a $5000 cash prize, as well as an optional writing residency at Trinity College, in the University of Melbourne. The winning piece will also be published in a forthcoming issue of Overland.

‘Dawning in the Rivulet of My Father’s Mourning’—Smith’s winning poem—was described by Overland as ‘a deeply personal poem set on Toonooba (Darumbal Country) that reels together grief, loss and language’.

Smith is a poet and editor of South Sea Island, Kabi Kabi, Northern Cheyenne and English heritage; she is the series editor of the UQP First Nations Classics.

Overland also announced two runners-up in this year’s prize: Mia Thom, for ‘gather’; and Georgia Malu, for ‘Miwi’.

Winners were chosen from a shortlist announced last month. The previous winner for poetry was Jasmin McGaughey in 2022, for ‘Sweet Anticipation’.

Established in 2014, the Nakata Brophy Prize alternates between poetry and short fiction each year. This year’s prize was awarded to ‘the best poem up to 88 lines by an Indigenous writer who [was] 35 years or younger at the closing date of the competition’. Judges were Karen Wyld and Eugenia Flynn.

Category: Awards Local news