Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript (2003-)
or The Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize
Subcategory of Queensland Poetry Festival Awards
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History

'Named in honour of a distinguished Queensland poet, the Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript is committed to encouraging emerging Queensland poets.  Now in its 17th year, this prestigious prize for an unpublished poetry manuscript comes with total prize money of $2,000 and a publishing contract. This prize is funded by Arts Queensland and supported by (University of Queensland Press) UQP.' (https://queenslandpoetryfestival.com/awards/thomas-shapcott-poetry-prize/)

Notes

  • Administered by The Queensland Poetry Festival this prize is for an unpublished manuscript by an emerging Queensland poet. The winner receives $3000, plus a publishing contract with the University of Queensland Press.

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2023

winner Madeleine Dale for 'The Water-bearers'.

Year: 2022

winner Jarad Bruinstroop for 'Reliefs'.

Year: 2021

winner y separately published work icon Blackbirds Don't Mate with Starlings Janaka Malwatta , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2022 24685571 2022 selected work poetry

'From Sri Lankan-Australian poet Janaka Malwatta, a superb collection that directs its imagining towards a just future for the next generation.

'This is a work of activism, fury and hope. Its urgent and purposeful poems contribute to the dismantling of racism, raging against its machinery. It combines performance poetry with poetries of witness and memory, recounting personal experiences of racism as well as historic injustices.

'The coherence of this collection comes from the incandescent rage that burns from the first poem to the last. Yet there is a measure of compassion here, a compassion that is able to register contradiction and complexity without passing judgement. Ultimately this superb collection directs its imagining towards a just future for the next generation.'  (Publication summary)

Year: 2020

winner y separately published work icon At the Altar of Touch Gavin Yuan Gao , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2022 23428662 2022 selected work poetry

'From the 2020 winner of the Thomas Shapcott Award comes a sophisticated, impressive and rich collection of poetry that unpacks the complexity of family, grief, and cross-cultural and queer identity.

'These richly allusive poems weigh violence and tenderness, wound and cure, history and future. Boldly and tenderly, they balance loss and gain, adventure and quiet, as they hum to one another of love and loss. This is a scintillating and exhilarating collection from an accomplished and distinctive new voice.' (Publication summary)

Year: 2019

winner y separately published work icon Cadaver Dog Luke Best , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2020 19702860 2020 single work novel

'When an inland tsunami floods the foothills of a mountain city, a woman survives the inundation of her home, alone. This edgy, potent verse novel circles the scene like the cadaver dog whose work it is to search for those who are missing. Reimagining traditions of bush gothic and outback horror, Luke Best crafts a terrifying and acute psychological portrait of grief and guilt. Loss, cowardice and trauma pulse through this singular and uncompromising narrative of ecological and personal disaster.' (Publication summary)

Works About this Award

For Better or Verse Phil Brown , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 22 May 2014; (p. 45)
'They say there's no money in poetry, which is true - unless you have to win two of Queensland major poetry prizes...'
Bribie's Bright Muse Rosemary Sorensen , 2004 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 11 October 2004; (p. 15)
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