2nd Place in Tom Collins Poetry Prize

 In February 2021, I was awarded second place in the Tom Collins Poetry Prize with my poem 'DEVOUR'. The Prize is presented by the Fellowship of Australian Writers (WA) and was judged by Caitlin Malin. 

 I wrote the poem in response to the Australia's catastrophic bushfires in 2019-2020. I spent a week in January 2021 in Cape Jervis with a view of Kangaroo Island but some days the smoke from fires was so thick it obscured the island. It was a weird, fretful time, and our Prime Minister's response did not ease the country's anxiety.

my dog and I looking toward Kangaroo Island, which is on fire

 

 

I challenged myself to write DEVOUR like a collage, a form I'm experimenting with more and more. I used multiple motifs, weaving together references to literary heavyweight Patrick White, sanitary napkins, peri-menopause, Australia's Prime Minister and blue cheese. I love working this way. It's intuitive, which means you have to be led by the poem, trusting that threads will work and pull itself together with humour and pathos.