I have been asked to post the speech I gave at the Newcastle Poetry Prize Awards for 2023. The awards are organised by the Hunter Writers Centre and sponsored by the University of Newcastle. As the Chairperson of the Centre, it is my honour to speak each year at the ceremony and present a couple of awards. The Newcastle Poetry Prize attracts entries from Australia’s leading poets but we also have two special awards from entries by a member of the Hunter Writers Centre and for an entry by a Hunter resident. These local awards are as competitive as the general prize and this year was no exception with two extremely good poets picking up the local prizes, Kit Kelen winning the members award and Jean Kent winning the Hunter resident’s award. They are both poets whose work I admire immensely. My brief speech outlined some of the history of this important poetry prize.
The Speech
Thank you very much and it is, indeed, a pleasure to speak this evening about the Newcastle Poetry Prize.
Before I begin, I would like to thank Katherine Maclean and acknowledge the great work she is doing as Director of the Centre since she commenced with us earlier this year. Katherine had to hit the ground running organising this prize, one of the highlights of the Hunter Writers Centre year. On behalf of the Board and the members, I just want you to know we appreciate all that you do.
This is the thirty-fifth time the prize has been awarded since 1981. There have been a couple of gaps and years when the prize was not awarded because of a lack of somebody to organise it and arrange the prize money, judges and printing.
The prize, however, has been awarded annually, without fail, since 1981.
As chair of the Hunter Writers Centre, I would like to acknowledge and thank the University of Newcastle for their most generous sponsorship of this important prize.
There is a long history between the University and the Newcastle Poetry Prize and, in the early days, the prize was organised by two very fine poets, both academics in the English Department at the uni and two poets I was honoured to be able to count among the many great teachers I had at uni. Those two poets were Chris Pollnitz and the late Paul Kavanagh. It was Chris and Paul who secured the initial pool of prize money from the Hunter Water Corporation.
We are also pleased to have with us this evening, on Zoom, the man who one could argue was the originator of the prize, Peter Goldman. In 1980, Peter produced a collection of poems from local poets, many of whom were associated with the university, to be handed out at the Mattara Festival which was held each year in Civic Park in Spring. The collection was simply as series of photocopied pages stapled together but, from that collection, this prize was born. The prize was, for some years, known as the Mattara Poetry Prize and, some years later, became the Newcastle Poetry Prize.
I was very excited last night when I was chatting on social media about today and somebody sent me a photograph of the cover of that first Mattara Anthology and Peter put together. I have know about it for a very long time and it has almost legendary status in the Newcastle poetry scene but I had never seen a copy before.
The Hunter Writers Centre took over the administration of the prize in 2005 and negotiated a sponsorship agreement with the University of Newcastle and the City of Newcastle. The university has remained a sponsor ever since and, for the last few years, has been the sole sponsor of this prize.
The Newcastle Poetry Prize is a national prize and each year we receive entries from some of the finest poets in Australia. Many poets I know consider it to be an honour just to be published in the anthology and consider that to be a win in itself.
There has been a long tradition of poetry in Newcastle and I think it is fitting that this city give its name to such an important event on the Australian literary calendar. I think this is born out of the environment of this city. Not far from here there are places which were important to the Awabakal people, places of ceremony and places of story.
Later, the Europeans came and took the land from the original inhabitants and in ways that we now know were shocking and puzzling to the original inhabitants, this became a place of punishment, a secondary penal colony. There were undoubtedly poets among the convicts. One of Australia’s best-known convict poets was known as Frank the Poet who spent some time on Worimi land, assigned as a shepherd to the AA Company having also been in the penal colony here, in Newcastle.
In the nineteenth century, Newcastle became both a busy seaport and a mining and industrial centre, two industries that also have their own traditions of storytelling in verse and song. The heritage of Newcastle is often reflected in the poetry that has emerged from the city – sometimes gritty, hard edged and uncompromising and sometimes funny, compassionate and warm.
Many of the members of the Hunter Writers Centre are poets and they range from established award winning and well published poets (some of whom have won this prize) through to novices and hobbyists. Several years ago, some of our local writers asked the Hunter Writers Centre if we could include an award to recognise a local poet and so, as part of the prize we have two special awards, one award is to recognise an entry by a member of the Hunter Writers Centre, and one is to recognise a poet residing in Newcastle and the Hunter Region.
As the Chairperson of the Hunter Writers Centre and a long-term member, it is always a pleasure to be able to recognise and honour one of our members and one of my fellow poets.
