Congratulations to Sarah Holland-Batt on winning this year’s Stella Prize for her poetry collection The Jaguar, which I reviewed favourably here
She takes home $60,000 thanks to the generous support of the Wilson Foundation.
According to the chair of the judging panel, Alice Pung, the author “writes about death as tenderly as we’ve ever read about birth”, adding:
She focuses on the pedestrian details of hospitals and aged care facilities, enabling us to see these institutions as distinct universes teeming with life and love. Her imagery is unexpected and unforgettable, and often blended with humour. This is a book that cuts through to the core of what it means to descend into frailty, old age, and death. It unflinchingly observes the complex emotions of caring for loved ones, contending with our own mortality and above all – continuing to live.
You can read the full announcement, made tonight, on the Stella Prize website.
This is the second year in a row that a poetry collection has won. Last year that honour went to Evelyn Araluen’s debut collection of prose and poetry, Dropbear.
Reading Matters 
It’s also the second year that poetry has been included as an option I think? Good to see poetry getting some recognition.
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Yes, that’s right … and both published by UQP
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Ah, yes, you are right. I love UQP.. they have been supporting.Aussie literature so broadly, and so well, for so long!
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I am a proud alumni 👩🎓
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Ale you? I didn’t know that. All I can boast is that I am a Queenslander!
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Yes, I did my Masters in Journalism at UQ. My undergrad was at Uni of Melb.
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Ah, that makes sense. I lived in Brisbane for 6 of my 14 Queensland years, but not near St Lucia. Very happy years. But, now I’m a Canberran.
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I lived in Toowong for a bit, then Taringa. I was there on a scholarship in 1994/95. In 96 I moved back to my hometown in country Vic to begin my first FT job as a journalist… it was the week of the Port Arthur massacre. When people ask me where I’m from I’m never sure what to say cos I’ve lived in VIC, QLD, UK & now WA! I generally just say “grew up on east coast and worked in London for a long time” and leave it at that.
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Having read your last review of her work too, I’m keen to read some of Sarah Holland-Batt’s poetry.
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I hope you can get hold of this at some point… not sure if it has been published abroad yet.
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Not looking good … yet.
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That’s a shame.
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