Faculty of Arts

Wesley Michel Wright Prize

The annual prestigious Wesley Michel Wright Prize in Poetry is open for award to an author or composer of original verse or poetry in the English and who is an Australian citizen.


Congratulations to Rosanna Licari for her 2011 winning entry, An Absence of Saints, first published in 2010 by UQP (University of Queensland Press).

Judges citation reads:

The standard of this year's WMW Prize was exceptionally high. Although there were relatively fewer entries in comparison to previous years - perhaps due to the necessity to have been already published - the judges found it extremely difficult to rank works of such standard. The final shortlist of three were extracts from Rosanna Licari's An Absence of Saints (UQP), Claire Potter's Swallow (Five Islands) and Ali Alizadeh's Ashes in the Air (UQP).
In the end, the judges decided that Rosanna Licari should receive the prize for her stunning poems, which were delightfully succinct, exhibited great poise in their diction, were often humorous, and had an affective power without sentimentality. Potter's poetry is marked by surreal intensities in its image-events, great linguistic inventiveness, and a heightened awareness of the violence of representations: difficult, but rewarding work. Alizadeh entered his magnificent poem 'Marco Polo', which is at once a highly-charged confessional work and a performance of the vicissitudes of exile. Beautifully-controlled, down to the breath-catching enjambment, the poem is nonetheless ferociously passionate. The judges would also like to highly commend Michelle Cahill's Vishvarupa (Five Islands).

 

Eligibility

The prize is open to applicants submissions who meet ALL of the following criteria:


Note:

 

Applicants can only apply online for this scholarship.

You must supply the following documents to support your application and can upload these into the electronic application form:

  1. Certified copy of proof of Australian Citizenship (Passport, Birth Certificate, Citizenship Certificate)
  2. A poem or a collection of poems (Poems are to be no less than 50 lines and a maximum of 500 lines)
  3. If work is published electronically - must show printed evidence of work published on website with address of website.
  4. A current ISSN or ISBN number for their book or journal publication (this includes webpages)
  5. If your entry is part of a hard copy book, please upload the extract you would like to submit for judging or alternatively apply online then mail 4 (four) hard copies of your book clearly highlighting the 50-500 lines your are submitting for judging (these books will not be returned). Mail to: Janita Westbury, Scholarships and Prizes Officer, Old Arts Building, Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne, Parkville  VIC  3010.


Please ensure you have the above information available before you commence your online application.

Applications must be submitted by closing date.

 

The judges' decision will be final and the University reserves the right not to award the prize in the event it is considered that no work of sufficient merit has been submitted. Winning applicants please note the University of Melbourne reserves the right to publish the name of the winning applicant on its websites and other University of Melbourne publications.

 

Closing date:

Monday 16 July 2012


Prize value:

$3,466
and one year's subscription to Meanjin magazine


University Trust Record:

UTR6.72 (74)

 

Students walking throught the University of Melbourne Arts precint

 

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