Andrew judges poetry prize
The Peter Cowan Writers Centre invited Andrew to judge the 2010 Patron’s Prize Literary Competition. Andrew delivered his Judge’s Report at a prize giving ceremony on Sunday afternoon, 12 September. The following is the text of his report:
I would like to thank the Peter Cowan Writers Centre for inviting me to judge the 2010 Patron’s Prize Literary Competition. I am honoured by your trust.
Seventy-eight poems were entered in the competition and they varied greatly in subject, theme, style and tone. They also varied considerably in literary quality. However, almost all the entries were intelligible and accessible, which is a commendable quality in poetry, or any other literary work. There was little evidence of poets pretending to be profound by being deliberately obscure.
Before announcing the prize winning and commended entries, I would like to make some comments on the entries generally.
I could not help but notice a recurrence of certain problems in many of the poems, and it may be useful to mention these. …
