Thanks to everyone who, in 2015, entered our annual manuscript prize. As in previous years, we received over 100 entries (104, to be exact) from all around Australia.
We’ll announce the shortlist for the prize within the next week, and the winner by the end of the month.
Whitmore Press is thrilled to announce that Jill Jones’s latest poetry collection, Breaking the Days, will be launched in Melbourne by Alison Croggon. The details:
The Alderman, upstairs
134 Lygon Street, Brunswick East
Saturday 21 November, 2.30–4.30pm
Launch by Alison Croggon – renowned poet, critic, playwright, novelist, librettist
Jill was the co-winner, with Tracy Ryan, of the 2014 Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize. Among many other awards, earlier this year Jill won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award 2015 for poetry.
We hope you can make on the 21st. Everyone welcome.
We’re giving late entrants an extra week to enter the Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize 2015. The deadline is now 22 September – entries postmarked up to and including that date will be accepted. All other guidelines and conditions accompanying the entry form apply.
Looking forward to seeing, and reading, your entries!
A reminder: entries for the 2015 Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize close next Tuesday, 15 September.
If you haven’t done so already, download the guidelines and entry form from the manuscript prize page, and get your entry in the mail to us by next Tuesday. Remember, you can now pay for your entry online.
And … yes, we’ll accept late entries provided that they are postmarked on or before 15 September. And yes, we accept multiple submissions, provided each submission is accompanied by a separate entry form and fee.
Many thanks to all who have submitted so far. We’re looking forward to an avalanche in the next seven days!
Whitmore Press is delighted to announce that Tracy Ryan’s latest poetry collection, Hoard, will be launched in Melbourne by Marion May Campbell. The details:
Collected Works bookshop
First Floor, Nicholas Building, 37 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Monday 31 August, 6pm for 6.30 start
Launch by Associate Professor Marion May Campbell – poet, novelist, academic and brilliant raconteur
Tracy was the co-winner of the 2014 Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize. We hope you can make it. Everyone welcome.
Can’t make the launch? Order an advance copy of Tracy’s collection, and we’ll post you the book the moment it arrives from the printer. Free postage!
It’s on again. The Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize for 2015 is open for submissions.
The prize, for publication of a fine, limited edition poetry chapbook of work by the winning entrant, is open to all Australian poets – new, emerging and established.
Previous winners of the manuscript prize are Jamie King-Holden (2010), B.R. Dionysius and Jo Langdon (2011), Lucy Todd (2012), Andy Jackson (2013), and Tracy Ryan and Jill Jones (2015). Tracy’s Hoard will be launched in Melbourne on 31 August, Jill’s Breaking the Days in November.
As ever, there are no restrictions in terms of subject matter or form. Entrants are encouraged to read the collections of previous winners to get an idea of the kinds of work that have achieved success to date.
Order a collection by a previous winner from our titles page or by using the order form. In some cases, we have just a few copies left. Your purchase also provides valuable support for the press, which currently receives no external funding.
The deadline is 15 September. We encourage early submission.
Click here for guidelines and entry form. Note that from the manuscript prize page, you can now pay via PayPal.
We look forward to reading your entry!
Andy Jackson’s the thin bridge, published by Whitmore Press in late 2014, has been widely, and extremely favourably, reviewed:
Dickens went on to add: ‘How much better it feels to read so passionate an anthology instead of putting up with drongo poems published by illiterate publishers’ – of some reassurance to both poet and publisher.
You can also read, in Plumwood Mountain, Kevin Brophy’s review of Andy’s book, based on Kevin’s launch of the thin bridge in September 2014: http://plumwoodmountain.com/kevin-brophy-reviews-the-thin-bridge-by-andy-jackson/
We still have copies of Andy’s brilliant book available – order online from our titles page.
We are delighted to announce Jill Jones and Tracy Ryan as joint winners of the Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize for 2014.
Of the five years we have run the prize, this year was the most challenging in determining a winner. We received a very large number of entries, including submissions from many highly regarded poets as well as from newer poets already writing strong work. This made the decision difficult – though this was a nice difficulty to have.
After taking extra time to decide a winner, we still couldn’t separate two extremely fine entries. So, we didn’t.
We’re very much looking forward to publishing collections by Jill (from South Australia) and Tracy (Western Australia) in 2015.
This is the second time we have had joint winners for the manuscript prize. The first was in 2011, when B.R. Dionysius and Jo Langdon took the gong.
Our warm thanks again to all who submitted to this year’s prize, and congratulations to those who reached the shortlist and made our judging such a difficult pleasure.
Warm thanks to all who entered our manuscript prize for 2014.
After much reading and discussion, we have shortlisted (in alphabetical order) the following poets:
Bonny Cassidy
Dan Disney
Alison Flett
Molly Guy
Jill Jones
Carmen Leigh Keates
Vanessa Page and John Koenig (joint submission)
Anupama Pilbrow
Tracy Ryan
Alison Strumberger
In 2014 we received the highest number of entries in the five years we have run the prize. Aside from the shortlisted poets, many others submitted entries of a high standard. Some included particularly fine individual poems that we would love to have published, but which we feel sure will find publication elsewhere in the near future.
The winner, whose work will be published by Whitmore Press in 2015, will be announced by the end of this month.
Andy Jackson’s the thin bridge was launched with eloquence, wit and insight by Kevin Brophy at Melbourne’s iconic Collected Works bookshop on
5 September 2014. Andy, who in 2013 won the Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize, read a number of poems from his collection.
We had a tremendous turnout. A warm thank you to all who came, and to Kris and Retta for hosting at their wonderful bookshop.
If you couldn’t make the launch, you can order a copy of Andy’s book, signed and numbered, from the titles page.
Professor Kevin Brophy launching Andy Jackson’s book. Photo: Di Cousens
More photos from the night can be found on our launches page.
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