The Australian Book Review (ABR) has announced that Judith Beveridge has won the 2015 Peter Porter Poetry Prize for her poem As Wasps Fly Upwards.
Morag Fraser AM named Judith as the overall winner at a ceremony at Collected Works Bookshop in Melbourne. Judith receives $5,000 for her poem, which was selected from a field of around 600 poems. The other shortlisted poets were Eileen Chong, Toby Fitch, John Kinsella, Kate Middleton, and Alex Skovron (who won the Prize in 2007) – each of them receives $500. The judges for the 2015 Peter Porter Poetry Prize were Lisa Gorton, Paul Kane, and Peter Rose.
Judith Beveridge has been writing poetry since 1974 and has published four books of poetry. Since 2002 she has been teaching poetry writing at postgraduate level at University of Sydney, having also worked at Newcastle University and UTS. She has written reviews and articles for major literary journals, and is a multi-award winner for her work. Her latest poetry publications are Devadatta’s Poems and Hook and Eye, which has just been published by George Braziller for the US market.
“I am deeply honoured to have won the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, not only because of the high regard I have for Peter Porter’s poetry and for Australian Book Review, but also because of the very strong 2015 shortlist,” says Judith Beveridge.
“I loved all the poems and was truly surprised to hear I’d won. My sincere thanks to ABR for continuing this prestigious prize, which is a great support for poets.”
The Porter Prize is one of Australia’s most lucrative and respected awards for poetry. It honours the life and work of the great Australian poet Peter Porter (1929 – 2010) – an honoured contributor to ABR for many years.
For more information, visit: www.australianbookreview.com.
Image: Judith Beveridge