Have just spent a wonderful weekend at the Henry Lawson Festival of Arts in Grenfell, NSW (8^th June – 11^th June) where I was lucky enough to receive two awards:

The Harold Goodwin Short Story Award, 2017

and the Grenfell Henry Lawson Award for Poetry, 2017.

It was a humbling experience to meet so many talented people and strong women writers, including Tara Moss and Hilarie Lindsay – if I’d known I was going to meet Hilarie I would have taken along my copy of the Washerwoman’s Dream!

My poem, Drought, received an amazing review from the judge, David Gilbey, author of Pachinko Sunset (Island Press, 2016) and has been published in the Henry Lawson Verse and Short Story Anthology 2017.

‘This poem has both the grandeur and delicacy of an almost neoclassical, Augustan elegance – the verse is regular, well-paced and its perspective is both judicious and minutely insightful. It escapes both Romantic affect and ballad simplification. It’s a poem that “thinks” more than “feels”. This is wise, meditative, compelling poetry.’ David Gilbey, President of Booranga Writer’s Centre and author of Pachinko sunset (Island Press, 2016).

My short story, A Single Breath, also received a lovely review from Dr Jane Downing, author and lecturer at Charles Sturt University.

‘The story of Eleanor in the ice and cold of Siberia is as controlled as her breathing. All her senses are engaged. A rider approaches: “a jangle of metal, the sigh of wood sliding over snow, a tinkling of bells, animals out of breath and a hoarse human cry”. The tension of the events is understated but very real, the metaphors confronting and layered.’

Ahh!

Back to the real world