Award-winning poet and Griffith University lecturer Dr Anthony Lawrence has won the 2017 Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry for his anthonlogy Headwaters.
Dr Lawrence, who teaches poetry at the Gold Coast campus, was awarded the prize for his 14th poetry collection published by Pitt Street Poetry, at the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards held in Canberra on December 1.
Dr Lawrence’s stature as one of Australia’s leading poets was recognised in 2015 with the coveted Philip Hokgins medal and is regularly reinforced by his many victories in poetry competitions: the inaugural Judith Wright Calanthe Award, the Gwen Harwood, the Blake, the Kenneth Slessor, the Peter Porter and most recently the prestigious 2015 Newcastle Poetry Prize, his third.
Scottish poet and T.S. Eliot Prize winner John Burnside describes Headwaters thus: “Headwaters marries an extraordinary gift for observation of the natural world and an exquisite appreciation of human creatureliness with marvellous linguistic precision to create a singular, life-affirming music”.
Judge’s comments:
Anthony