Judging Panel ASAL, 2010 on Evangelyne & other poems

Helen Hagemann's book [Evangelyne] looks the size of a chapbook but is actually quite substantial. Every line is packed with content, in coastal poems of memory and nostalgia that are celebratory, sometimes elegiac, and often both simultaneously. The poems have a wide range of reference even while maintaining a consistency of subject matter. No words are wasted and this with rich imagery creates an emotional intensity, but an intensity that does not preclude humour. The shortlisted poets include Emma Jones, Emily Ballou, Sarah Holland-Batt and Joanna Preston.  

Although my book didn't make it, it made it into The Australian Newspaper. Check article by Rosemary Sorensen, 13th March 2010

Congratulations! now to Joanna Preston for The Summer King winner of the Mary Gilmore Poetry Prize 2009 - (9/7/10)