Booranga Literary Prizes: Winners and Shortlists 2005 - 2023

 

Booranga Literary Prizes

Past Winners and Shortlists

2005: fourW sixteen – Inaugural Booranga Prize

Poetry

Keri Glastonbury – anti-suburb

Prose

David Orchard – Midnight Snow

No Short Lists

 

 

2006: fourW seventeen

Poetry

Alison Eastley (2 poems) –

Dead To The World My Body Was Sleeping

If you want to know the difference

Prose

Daniel King (2 stories) –

Nothing Contemplates Nothing

Driving Wheel

No Short Lists

 

 

2007: fourW eighteen

Poetry

Jill Jones – The Beautiful Anxiety

Prose

Daniel King – Heaven and/or Hell

No Short Lists

 

 

2008: fourW nineteen

Poetry

Alicia Sometimes – This Machine Kills Fascists

Prose

Alicia Sometimes – Artist. 2008

No Short Lists

 

2009: fourW twenty

Poetry Winner

Nicole Zdeb – Casual Hills Surround Me

Poetry Short List

Ivy Alvarez – from The Everyday Dictionary: A, M, X

Sam Byfield – Shipping

Brett Dionysius – The Diesel Age

Caroline Reid – A Ceremony to Commemorate the Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth ll

 

Prose Winner

Kate Rotherham – HM

Prose Short List 

Daniel King – Your Pain is My Pain

Helena Pastor – Rubbing

Yasmin Sumner – The Last Bird

 

 

2010: fourW twenty-one

Poetry Winner

Brett Dionysius – Flight

Poetry Short List 

Ivy Alvarez – Chamuel

Alison Eastley – A Parcel

Jill Jones – A Time to Refrain from Embracing

Graham Nunn – Roadside Grave

Scott-Patrick Mitchell – our heaven will betray us

Andrew Purches – The Corpse Eaters

Laura Smith – Clinton’s Cunt

 

Prose Winner

Kirk Marshall – Bear vs Plane

Prose Short List 

Belinda Campbell – The Fowlers

Daniel King – The Spider in the Wind Chimes

 

 

2011: fourW twenty-two

Poetry Winner

Jane Joritz-Nakagawa – from Blank City

Poetry Short List

Ivy Alvarez – Cento Quattro

Matt Hall – Through Haul

Mark O’Flynn – Kate Moss

Goro Takano – That Thing: A Noh Script

Prose Winner

A.S. Patric – Guns ‘N Coffee

Prose Short List

Daniel King – The Quarry

Lara S. Williams – Penny for the Short Step

 

 

2012: fourW twenty-three

Poetry Winner

Michael Farrell – The Structuralist Cowboy

Poetry Short List 

Brett Dionysius – Calf Puller

Stu Hatton – a book of buddhist monks

Patrick Jones – Noxious

Vlanes – Homage to Camoens

 

Prose Winner

Beverley Lello – Especially to Women

Prose Short List

Mark O’Flynn – Dictation

Maryanne Khan – When the Boat Comes In

Daniel King – The Purloined ‘Purloined Letter’

 

 

2013: fourW twenty-four

Poetry Winner 

B.R. Dionysius – Mundgatta (Bunyip)

Poetry Short List

Christopher Barnes – Filming Blood-Shot Silk: Deleted Scenes

Rory Harris – Avoca

Jules Leigh Koch – The Affair

Scott Patrick Mitchell – slum fun

Corey Wakeling – Fake Cheese (Pont Mirabeau)

Chloe Wilson – Agent Gabriel

 

Prose Winner

Broede Carmody – Wet Season

Prose Short List 

Jane Downing – Millionaires

Daniel King – Train of Thought

Andrew Kirby – The Great Bear

Beverley Lello – Sleeping Diagonally

Sean O’Leary – Going all the Way

 

2014: fourW twenty-five

Poetry Winner  

Mark O’Flynn – Six Lipograms

Poetry Short List

Rory Harris – Grace

Alana Kelsall – no sure footing

Rosanna Licari – All Hallows’ Eve

Derek Motion – Winter Collation

Les Wicks – Atlantis

 

Prose Winner

Beverley Lello – Writers’ Retreat

Prose Short List

Jane Downing – Killiney Beach

Daniel King – This Room is not Me

Dorothy Simmons – Sight Unseen

Lara S. Williams – Losing Cooper

 

 

2015: fourW twenty-six

Poetry Winner

Derek Motion – Density

Poetry Short List

Adam Day – Dead Fresian in Winter

Jules Leight Koch – Port Melbourne

Julie Maclean – Prize Collection

Ron Pretty – Plans

Gail Willems – Today I Write These Sad Lines

 

Prose Winner

Maryanne Khan – An Inconvenience

Prose Short List  

Nadine Brown – Drowning

Jane Downing – As Time Goes By

Sean O’Leary – Nowhere

Mike Tager – Where the Dead go to Disco

 

 

2016: fourW twenty-seven

Poetry Winner

Julie Maclean – 41 North 50 West

Poetry Short List

Bronwyn Lang – Mind the Gap

Les Wicks – Riding the Heatwave

Mark Young – Les Colchiques

 

Prose Winner

Beverley Lello – Sounds Like rain

Prose Short List

Daniel King – Coign of Vantage

Sean O’Leary – Prince of the City

 

 

2017: fourW twenty-eight

Poetry Winner

Daniel King – King Henry X

Poetry Short List 

Adam Fieled – Nights I Staggered Drunkenly

Elanna Herbert – Road to Gallipoli: between Cappadocia and Pamukkale

Matt Hetherington – Seidel’s

Kit Kellen – Practice of disappearance

Andy Kissane – Caught

Derek Motion – Birds Poem

Graham Rowlands – Absolutely

 

Prose Winner

Mitchell Grabois – Stinky Cheese

Prose Short List  

Maryanne Khan – Sideways

Alison Lesley – Weightless

Julie Maclean – Joel and Jess on the Verge

Dorothy Simmons – In Your Face

 

 

2018: fourW twenty-nine

Poetry Winner

Andy Kissane – Sacrifice

Poetry Short List  

Christopher Barnes – (2 poems) Decorative value & Move-On Industries TM Breakout

Gary Langford – River Sheep

Wes Lee – The Split

Derek Motion – Glamping

Prose Winner

Dorothy Simmons – Opposable Thumbs

Prose Short List

Natalya Lowndes –as far as a clean white page

Jessica A. McMinn – The End is Where We Start From

Bev Smith – Late-Night Thursdays

2019: fourW thirty

Poetry Winner

Hugh Crago – Equal Rights for Gay Whales

Poetry Short List

Jenny Blackford – Snow

Jennifer Compton – Walking Distance

Elanna Herbert – East…West…East…West…East

Andy Kissane – Aubade for Johnno

Denise O’Hagan – Vermeer in Boston

Gail Willems – Lines of Light

 

Prose Winner

Rachel Mead – The Bouncer and the Blot Clot

Prose Short List  

Alan Fettling – The Balsa Canoe

Daniel King – Our Privacy Statement

Jessica A. McMinn – Touched

Jo Mularczyk – Adrenaline

 

 

2020: fourW thirty-one

Poetry Winner

Tug Dumbly – Fake Billy Collins Poem

Poetry Short List

Jocelyn Freeman – Water

Sarah Rice – Washing

Les Wicks – Misfits

 

Prose Winner

Jane Downing – Buena Vista

Prose Short List 

Jake Dean – Smoko at Pikers Hole

Kristin Hannaford – Someone for Everyone

Jessica A. McMinn – River Boy

Bev Smith – The Honey Bee Table

 

 

2021: fourW thirty-two

Poetry Winner

Damon O’Brien – How to Hold a Knife

Poetry Short List

Jude Aquilina – Beltana to Marree

Lachlan Brown – Prayers for the People

Tug Dumbly – Lychees

Diane Jacono – Before your anger wakes

Michelle Rickerby – Wintering

 

Prose Winner

Rachel Mead – The Bow at Full Draw

Prose Short List  

Tug Dumbly – Bunnings (where ‘lower prices are just the beginning’)

Daniel King – Everything that is Not You is Me

Kate Maxwell – Extra-Existential Angst

Jo Mularczyk – Soul on Fire

Alicia Sometimes – Incompleteness Is All We Have

 

 

2022: fourW thirty-three

Poetry Winner

Lachlan Brown – Underline for Effect

Poetry Short List  

Nathan Curnow – The Hare

Toby Fitch – Poem on Wind and Trees

Kai Jensen – Secular puja

Wes Lee – If you had Died Slowly

Mark Macleod – Blackberry Picking

 

Prose Winner

Jane Downing – Marx’s Pennies

Prose Short List

Raelene Brown – The Purge

Michael Crane – Barossa

Jo Mularczyk – The Empty Page

Sarah Symmonds – Children of the Flood-Plain

 

 

2023: fourW thirty-four

Poetry Winner

Linda Albertson – Some Woman

Poetry Short List

Lachlan Brown – Pneumatic: Eight ‘Sigh-ku’

Cary Hamlin – The Baby Locket

Mark Macleod – Chinese New Year, Gangtok

Neill Overton – Gimcrack

Jena Woodhouse – Midnight Trolleybus

 

Prose Winner  

Christopher Scriven – So much depends

Prose Short List  

Jane Downing – The Thing about things

N.G. Hartland – Carrot

Coco X Huang – Underground

Karla Portch – Down the line

Jennifer Severn – Birthday Girl

Women of the Riverina

 

WOMEN OF THE RIVERINA: call for writers

 

Do you want to take part in a cross-cultural script written by First Nations and diverse women in the Riverina? The stories will unveil heartfelt narratives, probing our dramatic past and painting a vision for our collective future. It showcases the strengths of the region's women, their survival and resilience, and explores both their past and hopes for the future.

 

A powerful multi-arts theatrical production with projection and commissioned music is toured by professional actors and musicians to Sydney, The Riverina and Melbourne.

 

WHO IS LEADING THE PROJECT?

The project is led by a collaborative group with three strong years of partnership in the Riverina, managed by Voices of Women (VOW). The key group is Aunty Cheryl Penrith OAM, Curious Rabbit Director Vicki Burkinshaw and Voices of Women Artistic Director Lliane Clarke.

 

They are supported by Multicultural Council of Wagga Wagga, writer/performer and refugee advocate Haya Arzidin, Eastern Riverina Arts, Oddball Theatre Director Saasha McMillan, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, Booranga Writers' Centre, Eastern Riverina Arts and First Nations Australia Writers Network. New relationships will also be built, while existing ones strengthened and we welcome all collaborations.

 

WHAT IS THE CALL OUT?

We are inviting women to come forward with monologues = short stories told from the heart - heartfelt personal moments, tragic memories, truth telling, comedy and connection of all who identify as women who come from or live in this region in 2024.

 

We are keen to hear from First Nations women, farming women living on the land, refugees and migrants, young women, families, urban and rural women, women from the queer community, everyone is welcome.

 

We are happy to read what you have already written. Also, we will be holding a series of workshops and one-on one mentoring sessions to support you and inspire you to craft your story.

 

The stories will then be selected by an editorial panel and performed by actors, with music written especially for them. A small selection of stories will be filmed.

 

The stories are presented in Sydney at the KXT Broadway Theatre in November 2024 and at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, and on tour to Melbourne.

 

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

●       The stories have to be spoken by a woman and written by a woman, including trans women and non-binary writers.

●       They have to be short narrative monologues, between 800-1000 words.

●       They must be written in the first person - EG - I am the river... I am driving along and...

●       The writer must have and needs to include a connection to the region.

●       We are looking for stories that are strong, brave, poetic, funny, moving, uplifting.

●       Writers are paid a small honorarium fee if their story is selected for this program.

 

Have a look at this short trailer for Entanglement for some inspiration:

https://youtu.be/SxQW9Ja0ubo

 

We will be hosting a writing workshop in June/July to welcome and support all women writers who are working on stories/want to work on a new one/want to read their stories.

 

The deadline for the submission of stories is 30 August 2024.

 

HOW DO I ENTER

Email your Expression of Interest to monologue@optusnet.com.au and you will be sent the application form to complete and return by 30 August 2024.  Feel free to ask any questions and reach out on this email.

 

 

What Makes an Extra Virgin … Olive Oil? by Rob Harris

 

What Makes an Extra Virgin … Olive Oil?

by Rob Harris

A presentation to 

Friends of CSU & Booranga Writers’ Centre members & friends

Booranga Writers’ Centre, Mambarra Drive, CSU Wagga Wagga, 

6.30 for 7pm, 

Thursday 7 March, 2024.

Cost: $15 (payable at the door)

RSVP: David Gilbey president@booranga.com  by 1 March (important for oil quantities & seating)

We will consider the positive attributes that are necessary for classification of olive oil as ‘EVOO’, with summary consideration of the major faults which classify an oil as an inferior grade …

AND … some points to consider when buying Olive Oil.

There will be a comparative nose-on approach during this overview session, with time for questions. Plus, some sampling of The Olive Grove by Mark Brennan & Rob Harris, fourW press, 1996.

 

Presenter: Rob Harris

Member Australian Olive Oil Sensory Panel 2002-2024.

Judge at various National and International Olive Oil Competitions including:

·         Australian regional and National Olive Oil Competitions.

·         Royal Melbourne Fine Food Awards.

·         Germany, ‘Der Feinschmecker’, Hamburg, Joint venture sponsorship by (Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, Australia) RIRDC/‘

·         Italy, Rome ‘Flos Oli’; Milano: ‘Monocultivar Olive Oil Master certificated course’; Oil China; Rome L’Extravirgine A Guide to the best Certified Extra Virgin Olive Oils of the World’; Ancona invited panel guest (ASSAM).

·         New Zealand National Competition.

·         Tunisia: Cover story article, ‘Tunisian Harvest’, (photographic and text) for the Australian Olive Association, ‘The Olive Press’. Study of Tunisian Olive Oil production … Douz, Monastir, Chourbane, Mahdia, Sfax, Kairouan.

·         New York International Olive Oil Competition (Judge and head Judge).

·         London International Olive Oil Competition (judge and panel leader).

 

Joint venture support has been provided by;

RIRDC (Rural Industries Research Development Corporation, Australia)

Der Feinschmecker, Hamburg, Germany

China Oil

Milan EVOOC

Flos Oli, Rome

NZ EVOOC

New York IOOC

London IOOC