Grace Leven Prize for Poetry
Encyclopedia
The Grace Leven Prize for Poetry is an annual award given in the name of Grace Leven who died in 1922. It was established by William Baylebridge who "made a provision for an annual poetry prize in memory of 'my benefactress Grace Leven' and for the publication of his own work". Grace was his mother's half-sister.
The award is made to "the best volume of poetry published in the preceding twelve months by a writer either Australian-born, or naturalised in Australia and resident in Australia for not less than ten years". It offers only a small monetary prize, but is highly regarded by poets. It was first awarded in 1947, with the recipient being Nan McDonald's Pacific Sea.
The award is made to "the best volume of poetry published in the preceding twelve months by a writer either Australian-born, or naturalised in Australia and resident in Australia for not less than ten years". It offers only a small monetary prize, but is highly regarded by poets. It was first awarded in 1947, with the recipient being Nan McDonald's Pacific Sea.
Winners
- 2010: Joint winners
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- Phantom limb by David Musgrave
- Patience, Mutiny by LK Holt
- The Simplified World by Petra WhitePetra WhitePetra White is an Australian poet. Petra was born in Adelaide in 1975, the eldest of six children, and now lives in Melbourne, where she works, for the moment, as a public servant...
- 2007: The Goldfinches of Baghdad by Robert AdamsonRobert Adamson (poet)Robert Adamson is an Australian poet and publisher.-Biography:Adamson grew up in Neutral Bay and spent much of his teenage years in Gosford Boys Home for juvenile offenders. He discovered poetry while educating himself in Gaol in his 20s. His first book, Canticles on the Skin, was published in 1970...
- 2006: The Past Completes Me: Selected Poems 1973-2003 by Alan GouldAlan GouldAlan Gould is a contemporary Australian novelist and poet.Born in London Alan Gould's family lived in Northern Ireland, Germany and Singapore before arriving in Australia in 1966. He completed a BA at Australian National University and a Diploma of Education at the then Canberra College of...
- 2005: Next to Nothing by Noel RoweNoel RoweNoel Rowe was a poet who lived in Sydney, Australia, and was Senior Lecturer in Australian Literature at the University of Sydney where he was also awarded the University Medal and doctorate . Before becoming an academic, Rowe was a Roman Catholic priest in the Marist Order.Rowe was born in...
- 2004: Totem by Luke DaviesLuke DaviesLuke Davies is an Australian writer of novels, poetry and screenplays, born in Sydney in 1962.Davies' first poetry collection, Four Plots for Magnets, was published in 1982, when he was twenty....
- 2003: Lost in the Foreground by Stephen EdgarStephen EdgarStephen Edgar is a contemporary Australian poet, editor and indexer.-Background and education:Edgar was born in Sydney in 1951 where he attended Sydney Technical High School. Between 1971 and 1974 he lived in London and worked as a library assistant in the London Borough of Lambeth...
- 2002: Versary by Kate LilleyKate Lilley-Early life:Kate Lilley was born in Perth, Western Australia and moved to Sydney with her family. She is the daughter of writers Dorothy Hewett and Merv Lilley....
- 2001: Darker and Lighter by Geoff PageGeoff PageGeoffrey Donald Page is an Australian poet, translator, teacher and jazz enthusiast.He has published over seventeen collections of poetry, as well as prose and verse novels. Poetry and jazz are his driving interests, and he has also written a biography of the jazz musician, Bernie McGann...
- 1997: The Undertow: New and Selected Poems by John Kinsella
- 1995: Joint winners
- 2007: The Goldfinches of Baghdad by Robert Adamson
- New and Selected Poems by Kevin Hart
- Path of Ghosts: poems 1986-93 by Jemal Sharah
- 1993: The End of the Season by Philip HodginsPhilip HodginsPhilip Ian Hodgins was a prize-winning Australian poet whose work appeared in such major publications as The New Yorker. Peter Rose called him 'probably the most loved [Australian] poet of his generation', noting that 'his admirers ranged from... Alan Hollinghurst to Ron Barassi and Peter Porter...
- 1992: Joint winners
- 1993: The End of the Season by Philip Hodgins
- Empire of Grass by Gary CatalanoGary CatalanoGary Catalano was an Australian poet and art critic.-Life:Calatano was born on 30 October 1947 in Brisbane. He married writer Helen Hewitt in 1990...
- Peniel by Kevin Hart
- 1991: Dog Fox Field by Les MurrayLes Murray (poet)Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...
- 1989: A Tremendous World in Her Head by Dorothy HewettDorothy HewettDorothy Coade Hewett was an Australian feminist poet, novelist, librettist and playwright. She was also a member of the Communist Party of Australia, though she clashed on many occasions with the party's leadership.-Early life:Hewett was born in Perth and was brought up on a sheep and wheat farm...
- 1988: Under Berlin by John TranterJohn TranterJohn Ernest Tranter is an Australian poet, publisher and editor. He has a long list of achievements in writing, publishing and broadcasting...
- 1987: Occasions of Birds and Other Poems by Elizabeth RiddellElizabeth RiddellElizabeth Riddell was an Australian poet and journalist.Born in Napier, New Zealand, Elizabeth Richmond Riddell came to Australia in 1928 where she worked at Smith's Weekly and won a Walkley Award....
- 1986: Washing the Money : Poems with Photographs by Rhyll McMasterRhyll McMasterRhyll McMaster is a contemporary Australian poet and novelist. She has worked as a secretary, a nurse and a sheep farmer. She now lives in Sydney and has written full-time since 2000....
- 1985: Joint winners
- 1991: Dog Fox Field by Les Murray
- Selected Poems 1963-1983 by Robert GrayRobert Gray (poet)Robert William Geoffrey Gray is an Australian poet, freelance writer, and critic.-Biography:Gray grew up in Coffs Harbour and was educated in a country town on the north coast of New South Wales. He trained there as a journalist, and since then has worked in Sydney as an editor, advertising...
- The Amorous Cannibal by Chris Wallace-CrabbeChris Wallace-CrabbeChris Wallace-Crabbe AO is an Australian poet and Emeritus Professor in The Australian Centre, University of Melbourne.-Biography:...
- 1984: The Three Fates and Other Poems by Rosemary DobsonRosemary DobsonRosemary de Brissac Dobson AO is an award winning Australian poet, who is also significant as an illustrator, editor and anthologist...
- 1983: Collected Poems by Peter PorterPeter Porter (poet)Peter Neville Frederick Porter, OAM was a British-based Australian poet.-Life:Porter was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1929. His mother, Marion, died of a burst gall-bladder in 1938. He attended the Church of England Grammar School and left school at 18, and went to work as a trainee journalist...
- 1982: Tide Country by Vivian SmithVivian SmithVivian Brian Smith is an Australian poet. He is considered one of the most lyrical and observant Australian poets of his generation....
- 1981: Nero's Poems: Translations of the Public and Private Poems of the Emperor Nero by Geoffrey LehmannGeoffrey lehmannGeoffrey Lehmann is an Australian poet, children's writer, and tax lawyer. Lehmann grew up in McMahon's Point, Sydney, and attended high school at the Shore School in North Sydney. He graduated in Arts and Law from the University of Sydney in 1960 and 1963 respectively...
- 1980: The Boys Who Stole the Funeral by Les MurrayLes Murray (poet)Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...
- 1979: The Man in the Honeysuckle by David CampbellDavid Campbell (poet)David Watt Ian Campbell was an Australian poet who wrote over 15 volumes of prose and poetry.-Life:Campbell was born on 16 July 1915 at Ellerslie Station, near Adelong, New South Wales...
- 1978: Sometimes Gladness : Collected Poems 1954-1978 by Bruce DaweBruce DaweDonald Bruce Dawe AO is an Australian poet, and is considered by many as one of the most influential Australian poets of all time.-Early life:...
- 1977: Selected Poems by Robert AdamsonRobert Adamson (poet)Robert Adamson is an Australian poet and publisher.-Biography:Adamson grew up in Neutral Bay and spent much of his teenage years in Gosford Boys Home for juvenile offenders. He discovered poetry while educating himself in Gaol in his 20s. His first book, Canticles on the Skin, was published in 1970...
- 1976: Selected Poems 1939–1975 by John BlightJohn BlightJohn Blight was an Australian poet. The name Blight is of Cornish origin.-Biography:Born in Unley, South Australia on 30 July 1913, Blight was educated at Brisbane State High School. During the Great Depression in Australia he tramped the Queensland coast looking for work...
- 1975: Selected Poems (1975) by Gwen HarwoodGwen HarwoodGwen Harwood AO , née Gwendoline Nessie Foster, was an Australian poet and librettist. Gwen Harwood is regarded as one of Australia's finest poets, publishing over 420 works, including 386 poems and 13 librettos. She won numerous poetry awards and prizes...
- 1974: Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems by David MaloufDavid MaloufDavid George Joseph Malouf is an acclaimed Australian writer. He was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2000, his 1993 novel Remembering Babylon won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, he won the inaugural Australia-Asia Literary Award in 2008, and he was...
- 1973: A Soapbox Omnibus by Rodney HallRodney Hall-Biography:Born in Solihull, Warwickshire, England, Hall came to Australia as a child after World War II and studied at the University of Queensland . In the 1960s Hall began working as a freelance writer, and a book and film reviewer. He also worked as an actor, and was often engaged by the...
- 1972: Head-waters by Peter SkrzyneckiPeter SkrzyneckiPeter Michael Skrzynecki OAM, is an Australian poet of Polish/Ukrainian origin.-Biography:Skrzynecki came to Australia with his parents in 1949, as a refugee from "the sorrow / Of northern wars"...
- 1971: Joint winners
- 1984: The Three Fates and Other Poems by Rosemary Dobson
- Judith Wright: Collected Poems, 1942-1970 by Judith WrightJudith WrightJudith Arundell Wright was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights.-Biography:...
- Collected Poems 1936-1970 by James McAuleyJames McAuleyJames Phillip McAuley was an Australian academic, poet, journalist, literary critic and a prominent convert to Roman Catholicism.-Life and career:...
- 1970: Letters to Live Poets by Bruce BeaverBruce BeaverBruce Victor Beaver was an Australian poet and novelist.-Biography:Beaver was born in Manly, New South Wales. He was educated at the Manly Public School and at the Sydney Boys' High School...
- 1969: A Counterfeit Silence: Selected Poems by Randolph StowRandolph StowJulian Randolph Stow was an Australian writer.-Life:Born in Geraldton, Western Australia, Randolph Stow attended Guildford Grammar School and the University of Western Australia. He lectured in English Literature at the University of Adelaide, the University of Western Australia and the...
- 1968: Selected Poems 1942-1968 by David CampbellDavid Campbell (poet)David Watt Ian Campbell was an Australian poet who wrote over 15 volumes of prose and poetry.-Life:Campbell was born on 16 July 1915 at Ellerslie Station, near Adelong, New South Wales...
- 1967: Collected Poems 1936-1967 by Douglas Stewart
- 1966: The Talking Clothes: Poems by William Hart-SmithWilliam Hart-SmithWilliam Hart-Smith was a New Zealand/Australian poet who was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. His family moved to New Zealand in 1924. He had about "seven years of formal schooling" in England, Scotland and New Zealand before getting work at 15. His first job was as a radio mechanic...
- 1965: The Ilex Tree by Les MurrayLes Murray (poet)Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...
and Geoffrey LehmannGeoffrey lehmannGeoffrey Lehmann is an Australian poet, children's writer, and tax lawyer. Lehmann grew up in McMahon's Point, Sydney, and attended high school at the Shore School in North Sydney. He graduated in Arts and Law from the University of Sydney in 1960 and 1963 respectively... - 1964: All the Room by David RowbothamDavid RowbothamDavid Rowbotham was an Australian poet and journalist.-Biography:Rowbotham was born in the Darling Downs of Queensland, in the city of Toowoomba. He attended Toowoomba Grammar School and studied at the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney...
- 1963: The North-Bound Rider by Ian MudieIan MudieIan Mayelstone Mudie was an Australian poet and author from Adelaide closely connected with the Jindyworobak Movement, which he was associated with from 1939 onwards. In 1941 he moved to Sydney and became involved in Australia First...
- 1962: South-most Tree by R. D. FitzgeraldR. D. FitzgeraldRobert David FitzGerald III AM OBE was an Australian poet.-Biography:FitzGerald was born in Hunters Hill, New South Wales, a third-generation Australian of Irish extraction, and studied science at the University of Sydney. He left before graduating, however, and followed in the footsteps of both...
- 1961: Time on Fire by Thomas Shapcott
- 1960: Man in a Landscape by Colin ThieleColin ThieleColin Milton Thiele, AC was an Australian author and educator. He was renowned for his award-winning children's fiction, most notably the novels Storm Boy, Blue Fin, the Sun on the Stubble series, and February Dragon.- Biography :Thiele was born in Eudunda in South Australia to a Barossa German...
- 1959: The Wind at Your Door: a Poem by R. D. FitzgeraldR. D. FitzgeraldRobert David FitzGerald III AM OBE was an Australian poet.-Biography:FitzGerald was born in Hunters Hill, New South Wales, a third-generation Australian of Irish extraction, and studied science at the University of Sydney. He left before graduating, however, and followed in the footsteps of both...
- 1958: Antipodes in Shoes by Geoffrey DuttonGeoffrey DuttonGeoffrey Piers Henry Dutton AO was an Australian author and historian.Dutton was born in Kapunda, South Australia in 1922 and died in September 1998...
- 1957: Elegaic and Other Poems by Leonard MannLeonard Mann-Life:He served in the Australian Imperial Force during World War I, and with the Department of Aircraft Production in World War II.-External links:*...
- 1955: The Wandering Islands by A. D. HopeA. D. HopeAlec Derwent Hope AC OBE was an Australian poet and essayist known for his satirical slant. He was also a critic, teacher and academic.-Life:...
- 1954: Thirty Poems by John Thompson
- 1953: Tumult of the Swans by Roland RobinsonRoland Robinson (poet)Roland Edward Robinson OAM was an Australian poet and writer.Robinson was born in County Clare, Ireland in 1912. At the age of 9, in 1921 he was brought to Australia...
- 1952: Between Two Tides by R. D. FitzgeraldR. D. FitzgeraldRobert David FitzGerald III AM OBE was an Australian poet.-Biography:FitzGerald was born in Hunters Hill, New South Wales, a third-generation Australian of Irish extraction, and studied science at the University of Sydney. He left before graduating, however, and followed in the footsteps of both...
- 1951: The Great South Land by Rex IngamellsRex IngamellsReginald Charles Ingamells was an Australian poet, generally credited with being the leading light of the Jindyworobak Movement....
- 1949: Woman to Man by Judith WrightJudith WrightJudith Arundell Wright was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights.-Biography:...
- 1948: A Drum for Ben Boyd by Francis WebbFrancis Webb (poet)Francis Charles Webb-Wagg was an Australian poet who published under the name Francis Webb. "Diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia in the 1950s, he spent most of his adult life in and out of psychiatric hospitals, writing poetry against terrible odds." He is widely regarded as one of...
- 1947: Pacific Sea by Nan McDonaldNan McDonald (poet)-Biography:Born in Eastwood, New South Wales, McDonald went to Hornsby Girls' High School , and studied at the University of Sydney . She worked as an editor for Angus and Robertson, where she specialized in Australian literature, with colleagues such as Alec Bolton, Beatrice Davis and Douglas...
- 1970: Letters to Live Poets by Bruce Beaver
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