Yes, poetry is an elitist pursuit, since not everyone can write it, nor can everyone read and enjoy it. Yet it is still the most democratic, maybe even anarchic of the written/spoken arts. Rarely beholden to any writers centre/book club/festival/market place, we truly can write as we please, and if readers have to meet us some of the way and adjust…so be it.

Congratulations to Michelle Cahill whose short story collection Letter to Pessoa won the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing, a prize which recognises a published book of fiction written by an author who has not previously published a book-length work of narrative fiction or narrative non-fiction.

We are thrilled to announce that two Giramondo authors have been shortlisted for 2017 NSW Premier’s Awards: Antigone Kefala is shortlisted for her poetry collection, Fragments, for the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and Michelle Cahill is shortlisted for her short story collection, Letter to Pessoa, for the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing.

Indigenous poet Ali Cobby Eckermann has won the 2017 Windham-Campbell award for poetry. She has said that the prize money, which totals A$215,000, is ‘going to change my life completely’.

Giramondo author Sean Rabin has been shortlisted for the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Award for Fiction with his novel Wood Green set in a village on the slopes of Mt Wellington in Tasmania.

We are delighted to announce that Lisa Gorton has co-won the 2016 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction. Michael Farrell was also shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry.

Fiona Wright has been awarded The University of Queensland Non-fiction Book Award for Small Acts of Disappearance: Essays on Hunger.

The Guardians by Lucy Dougan has won the Western Australia Premier’s Award in the poetry category.

The judges noted: ‘Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book is a sprawling, magnificent achievement, a remarkable imaginative vision of Australia as it was and is, and will be.’

Ali Cobby Eckermann’s collection of poems, Inside My Mother, is one of three titles shortlisted for the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing.

On Wood Green the judges commented: ‘Set in Tasmania, this is a charming, quirky and very clever debut novel, bursting with literary references and boasting a memorable cast of characters. A genuine pleasure to read.’

Two Giramondo poets have been shortlisted for the 2016 Western Australian Premier’s Poetry Award: Lucy Dougan for The Guardians and Jennifer Maiden for The Fox Petition.

We are excited to announce that Fiona Wright has won the 2016 Nita B Kibble Literary Award for her collection of essays, Small Acts of Disappearance. The Award, which is worth $30 000, celebrates female writers and their impact on life writing.

We’re excited that Battarbee and Namatjira by Martin Edmond has been shortlisted for the National Biography Award.

We’re delighted that Fiona Wright has been shortlisted for the Kibble Award for Established Writers for her essay collection Small Acts of Disappearance.

We’re delighted that two Giramondo authors received awards at the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.