I was late in posting about this award in December (after the shortlist had been released in November), and now I find myself lagging behind again as the winner was announced in December - the day after I published the shortlist as it happened: sometimes you just can't win.
The 2008 ACT Book of the Year was Walking the Camino: a modern pilgrimage to Santiago by Tony Kevin. Also announced in the press release cited above were four ACT Poetry Prizes.
Judith Wright Prize for a published collection by an Australian poet
Winner: Barry Hill (VIC) - Necessity - Poems 1996-2006 (soi3 modern poets, an imprint of papertiger media inc)
Highly Commended:
J S Harry (NSW) - Not Finding Wittgenstein (Giramondo Poets)
Commended:
Meredith Wattison (NSW) - Basket of Sunlight (Puncher and Wattmann)
Petra White (VIC) - The Incoming Tide (John Leonard Press)
Short-list:
Elizabeth Campbell (VIC) - Letters to the Tremulous Hand (John Leonard Press)
Brendan Ryan (VIC) - A paddock in his head (Five Islands Press)
Alec Bolton Prize for an unpublished manuscript by an Australian poet
Winner:
Dr David Musgrave (NSW) - "Phantom Limb"
Highly Commended:
Cate Kennedy (VIC) - "The Taste of River Water"
Jean Kent (NSW) - "Travelling with the Wrong Phrase Books"
Short-list:
Carolyn Leach-Paholski (VIC) - "The Sorrow Bird"
Tracy Ryan (WA) - "The Argument"
Rosemary Dobson Prize for an unpublished poem by an Australian poet
Winner:
Andy Jackson (VIC) - "Secessionist"
Commended:
Anna Buck (NSW) - "A Council House in Heaven"
Paul Cliff (ACT) - "Snake-Man (La Perouse)"
Short-list:
Chris Andrews (VIC) - "By Accident"
Jennifer Compton (VIC) - "Approaching Firenze"
John De Laine (SA) - "Field Mouse"
Joan Kerr (VIC) - "Gobray, bunhan bunahan, khen"
Dr Edward Livings (VIC) - "Tawny Frogmouth"
Nathan Shepherdson (QLD) - "unlike"
David Campbell Prize for an unpublished poem by an ACT poet
Winner:
Dr Danijela Kambaskovic-Sawers - "A Migrant Writer on a Bus (Thinking of Kundera)"
Commended:
Dr Elizabeth Lawson - "On the Undoing of Buttons"
Dr Paul Magee - "Like words laid down in sleep"
Short-list:
Lesley Lebkowicz - "The Spy, Volodya Petrov, leaves his home..."
Moya Pacey - "The Wardrobe"
Geoff Page - "Dancing in a Paper Hat"
Maggie Shapley - "Changdeokgung"
