Saleh wins 2021 Peter Porter Poetry Prize

The Australian Book Review (ABR) has announced Sara M Saleh as the winner of the 2021 Peter Porter Poetry Prize, for her poem ‘A Poetics of Fo(u)rgetting’.

The judges said of Saleh’s winning poem: ‘“The Poetics of Fo(u)rgetting” tells the story of a resettled Lebanese refugee family from a daughter’s point of view. The double shellshock of a family displaced by war is evoked with quiet pathos. But cultural observances mean one thing to the older generation and another to the next. These ruptures were sensitively observed across this lush, cinematic poem.’

Saleh is a poet and writer, and her work has been published in English and Arabic in SBS Life, Australian Poetry Journal, Meanjin, Cordite Poetry Review, Bankstown Poetry Collections, and the Sweatshop Women’s Anthology: Volume II. She is co-editor of the anthology Arab, Australian, Other (Picador) and is currently developing her first novel as a recipient of the inaugural Affirm Press Mentorship for Sweatshop Western Sydney.

Now in its 16th year, the award’s total prize money increased in 2021, with the overall winner, Saleh, receiving $6000 while the four shortlisted poets receive $1000 each. All shortlisted poems will be published in the January–February issue of ABR. The judges for this year’s prize are John Hawke, Lachlan Brown, A Frances Johnson and John Kinsella.

For more information, see the ABR website.

Category: Awards Local news