Advances

ABR Poetry Competition

Earlier this year, Stephen Edgar won the inaugural ABR Poetry Competition. He picked up a cheque for $2000, and ABC Television made a feature about him and other shortlisted poets – not bad coverage for poets in a country many of whose newspapers and general magazines have so lament-ably and short-sightedly reduced their coverage of poetry. Well, the competition is on again. Its principal aim is to uncover some of the best new poems being written in this country. Up to six of them will be shortlisted in the March 2006 issue; the winner will be announced in April 2006. Full details appear on page 8. The entry form is also available on our website, or on request. The closing date is December 15.

J.M. Coetzee at the National Library

‘Advances’ is often amused by prognostications about the demise or disengagement of fiction. 2005 has already proved to be an auspicious year for new Australian fiction. And there’s more to come! This month, J.M. Coetzee, the remarkable South African writer will publish his new novel, Slow Man. UK publication will follow the book’s local release by a week, though the novel has already been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. There are so many surprises in Mr Coetzee’s new novel that it would be wrong to discuss them here, except to say that the book is set in Adelaide, where he has lived for some time, and that Elizabeth Costello, the eponymous character in his previous novel, makes another appearance, bossy as ever. James Ley, who discussed J.M. Coetzee’s oeuvre in his essay ‘The Tyranny of the Literal’ in our April issue, will review the novel next month.

In a country famously saturated with prizes, the ABR Reviewing Competition is unique. It is widely regarded as one of the most constructive and needed awards, which is why we have brought forward the third competition from the advertised date of 2006. Announcing the winners of last year’s competition in the December 2004–January 2005 issue, ‘Advances’ reported that 100 new and experienced reviewers had entered, in three categories: fiction, non-fiction (including poetry) and children’s/young adult books. Our winners were Maya Linden, Vivienne Kelly and Stephanie Owen Reeder, respectively, all of whom (in addition to having their winning review published in the February 2005 issue of ABR) have gone on to write for the Review (Dr Reeder, indeed, has just become an editorial adviser). ABR looks forward to a similarly rich crop this year.

Much has been written and muttered about the difficulty of turning scholarship into commercially viable manuscripts and of interesting publishers in academic writing – some of it, indeed, by Tom Griffiths in the March issue of ABR. In his Commentary, Professor Griffiths defended the role of universities in fostering cogent, rigorous writing. (He also produced one of our favourite quotes of the year: ‘Scholarly writers tend to be pathetically grateful to be published.’) Now Picador Australia and the University of Sydney have taken it one step further. In what is claimed to be a ‘world-first commercial non-fiction publishing project’, costing more than $660,000, six writing residencies will be offered for recent doctoral graduates to turn their research dissertations into commercial non-fiction to be published by Picador Australia. The graduates will be mentored by ‘established literary non-fiction writers of the highest calibre’. Drusilla Modjeska, currently an ARC Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney, will lead the project, which will also fund an Australian Postgraduate Award, a scholarship for doctoral research into aspects of Australian non-fiction publishing.

And the winner is …

Stephen Edgar has won the inaugural ABR Poetry Prize with his poem ‘Man on the Moon’. The three judges, Morag Fraser, Peter Rose and Peter Steele, were impressed by the overall quality of the entries and were pleased to be able to choose from such a strong short list, but the final decision was quick and unanimous because of the formal and imaginative qualities of Stephen Edgar’s poem. He receives $2000, and ‘Man on the Moon’ reappears on page 13. Elsewhere in the magazine, we publish the two poems that received honourable mentions (by Judith Bishop and Lisa Gorton). ABR also apologises to Mark Tredinnick, and our readers, for the ludicrous break that somehow infiltrated his villanelle ‘Ubirr Rock’, which we published with the other short-listed works in the previous issue.

2004 National Biography Award

There have been some big developments with this award, which is administered and presented by the State Library of New South Wales on behalf of its benefactor, Dr Geoffrey Cains. As we go to press, the organisers tell us that this year’s prize money has been increased from $15,000 to $20,000, because of the generosity of Michael Crouch, Director of Zip Heaters and a supporter of the Library. This makes it one of our wealthiest literary awards. The judges (Edmund Campion, Amanda Lohrey and Gerard Windsor) have compiled an interesting short list: Robert Adamson’s Inside Out (Text), Li Cunxin’s Mao’s Last Dancer (Viking), Robert Hillman’s The Boy in the Green Suit (Scribe), Gaylene Perry’s Midnight Water (Picador) and Peter Skrzynecki’s Sparrow Garden (UQP). On March 2, Belinda Hutchinson will announce that Robert Hillman (not the Robert Hillman who gets stuck into Geoff Page in our ‘Letters’ this month) is the winner of this year’s award.

And the winners are ...

The judges of the 2004 ABR Reviewing Competition were gratified by the level of interest in this competition and by the overall standard of entries. We received almost 100 entries (a third of them from subscribers). Fiction and non-fiction were evenly divided; there were rather fewer children’s/young adult book reviews. To no one’s surprise, the most popular book was Helen Gamer’s Joe Cinque’s Consolation: A True Story of Death, Grief and the Law, followed by Shirley Hazzard’s The Great Fire and Peter Goldsworthy’s Three Dog Night. In the non-fiction category, the field was eclectic, from poetry to memoir to academic monograph. The judge had to hand it to Alan Whitehead of Blackheath NSW, who chose to review the 2005 Sydney and Blue Mountains Street Directory. Next time we look forward to his critique of the telephone directory.

ABR's inaugural poetry prize

Australia boasts several worthy poetry prizes, but the inaugural ABR Poetry Prize is one of the most lucrative: the author of the winning poem will earn $2000. The other short­listed poems will each receive $200, as well as being published in the March 2005 issue – one month before we announce the winner. Often, in poetry competitions, suites of poems are eligible, and the effect can be to privilege a group of poems over the shorter, discrete poem. Our prize is limited to a single poem of no more than 100 lines. Poets are invited to enter as many works as they like. Once again, ABR subscribers receive a $10 discount off the entry fee. Guidelines and entry form appear on page 17. (You can also download them from our website.) Entries close on December 15, so we know how our three judges will be spending the summer.

An evening with J.M. Coetzee

ABR (in association with La Trobe University and the City of Melbourne) is delighted to be able to invite all our readers, but especially our subscribers, to what promises to be one of our major events for the year, when the masterly novelist and critic J.M. Coetzee will read from his work. This rare opportunity for Victorians to hear the Nobel Laureate and author of Disgrace and Life and Times of Michael K will take place at the Melbourne Town Hall at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, August 4 (we suggest you arrive at 5.30 to ensure you get a seat). Full details appear on page 5. This is a free event. La Trobe University will also confer the degree of Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) on J.M. Coetzee during his visit to Melbourne.

Changes at ABR

At our recent AGM we farewelled Vicki Nicholson our longest-serving board member, and welcomed two new members. Bridget Griffen-Foley and Paul Hetherington (from Sydney and Canberra, respectively) have both served on the editorial advisory board. Paul Hetherington reviews both poetry and fiction in our pages. Dr Griffen-Foley’s bimonthly media columns appear in alternate issues. Her subject this month is the grotesque row between John Laws and Alan Jones.