Madeleine Dale's 'Portraits of Drowning' wins the Five Islands Poetry Prize
Congratulations to Madeleine Dale, whose recent collection Portraits of Drowning has won the Five Islands Prize with Portraits of Drowning.
This annual prize supports emerging poets and honours the publishers who have shown confidence in new poets. The winning poet receives a cash prize of $2750 while their publisher receives $1100. Unique among literary awards, this prize for a first book of poetry includes a cash prize for the publisher as well as the chosen poet.
As many readers and poets know, Five Islands Press was a prominent independent Australian poetry publishing house for thirty-four years, from 1986 until 2007 under the direction of Ron Pretty, then until 2020 under a changing team of editors who kept the press going strongly.
More information is available on the prize website.
Here's what the Five Island judges had to say:
The beguiling crosscurrents of Portraits of Drowning are announced in its title. Who would stop to make a portrait of somebody drowning? Everywhere, Dale makes the unexpected choice. Thoroughly versed in tradition, she chooses surprise, history with a twist, the familiar made strange through an assured idiosyncratic eye. This is a thrilling, moving and thought-provoking collection of poems, meticulously researched but always empathic and intimate. Dale has a remarkable dexterity with form and theme. The collection almost dazzles with its kaleidoscopic shifts and the breadth of its attention, but is always grounded in the particular: ‘slicing ginger in the green kitchen’ (from “Three Mornings”). Of particular note is Dale’s voice. It is deceptively conversational, her tone direct and often matter of fact.
The deception is that in fact every word, every line is carved with precision and an exquisite attention to juxtaposition and rhythm: ‘Before I love you, the bay gelding breaks his leg’ (from “Crush Fracture”). Even on rereading, the poems excite with new possibilities as they shapeshift to slip from beneath the staid weight of assumption. Literary allusions and deep research sit alongside an adventurous, rangy, slightly wild approach to form, structure and poetic composition. Such manoeuvres can only be pulled off by a poet in full control of their craft. We congratulate Madeleine Dale and UQP on this assured and singular book, we know it will find a wide readership.
This is the second year in a row a UQP book has taken out the prize. Congratulations once again to Madeleine on receiving this fantastic award.
