 | Mr Alan Wearne Mr Alan Wearne |
Another literary accolade for The Lovemakers
Not for decades has a collection of Australian poetry won the prestigious Colin Roderick Award for the best book published in Australia.
However the University of Wollongong's Mr Alan Wearne from the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, has changed that with the second volume of his verse novel The Lovemakers ('Money and Nothing'), which is centered around the interconnected lives of a number of Australian people between 1960 and 1990.
The Colin Roderick Award, established in 1967, is the principle award of the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies within James Cook University, Townsville.
The $10,000 prize is awarded annually for the best book published in Australia, which deals with any aspect of Australian life including fiction, history, autobiography or poetry. The award honours the late Colin Roderick who was an eminent literary scholar, the first Professor of English at James Cook University and the person who established the Foundation of Literary Studies.
This year the award is being shared for the first time between Mr Wearne and popular Australian author, Tim Winton.
Mr Wearne has been part of the Australian poetry scene since the late sixties and is the author of Public Relations, New Devil, New Parish, Out Here, (a verse novella), the award winning verse novel The Nightmarkets (which has also been adapted for the stage) and Kicking in Danger (a fantasy satire on Melbourne's football). Volume 1 of The Lovemakers was launched in 2001, together with a CD of selections read by the author.
The first volume won the NSW Premiers Prize for Poetry and Book of the Year in 2002. It also won The Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award for Poetry, an award presented annually for the best collection of poetry by an Australian author.
The Lovemakers, in its entirety, explores the inner and outer tensions of families and society. The rituals of home extensions, weddings and public-service career paths are covered in Book 1 and the world of big business, the sex industry and the drug trade in Book 2.
"Much of the novel is propelled by voice and voices and readers should be prepared for many characters to step forward and address them directly," said Alan.
"My novel can best be explained as an interconnected verse narrative. I wrote the collection in the hope that it would be thoroughly enjoyed, capture the imagination of its readers and be more than just a piece of social history."
Alan Wearne and Tim Winton received the award last night in Townsville, QLD.
Faculty of Creative Arts
University of Wollongong
January 2006
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