Anne Carson ran the SecondBite Poetry Competition in conjunction with SecondBite and Australian Poetry, for the first time in 2014.
We congratulate the following shortlisted poets:
Andy Kissane – ‘Dinner’
Anthony Lawrence – ‘Expectation’
Barbara Fisher – ‘In Praise of Oranges’
Chloe Callistemon – ‘Pawpaw’
Stefan Dubczuk- ‘Platzka’
Simeon Kronenburg – ‘Tea and salak and burbur ayam’
Ben Oost – ‘The Apricot Tree Never Strays Far From its Mother’
Eileen Chong – ‘Harbour’
Eileen Chong – ‘Xiao Long Bao’
The winner and three runners up were announced at an Awards Ceremony held in Melbourne on July 22nd. Because of the high calibre of the entries three runner up prizes of $500 were awarded along with a first prize of $5,000. Our judges are all highly respected and acclaimed writers who have donated their services to the competition. Poets Judith Beveridge and Chris Wallace-Crabbe prepared a shortlist and Gay Bilson, writer and retired restaurateur joined the judging panel after the shortlist was announced (on July 9th).
Poetry Competition Invitation v2 7.7.2014
The competition sought to bring together a number of complementary goals:
It sought to promote the food rescue charity SecondBite – raising funds and awareness of the issues they tackle – the appalling food waste in Australia at the same time as the plight of people who are food insecure.
It also sought to raise the awareness of Australian poetry, showcasing excellence and originality and highlighting the potential of poetry as a means to discuss critical social issues – in this case food.
More information from:
… food is captured memorably, deliciously in my particular province – poetry. Seamus Heaney’s crabapple jelly, Neruda’s watermelon whales, Allison Croggin’s voluptuous vegetables, and the bite of Carol Ann Duffy’s onion. . it gives license to be sensual, symbolic, to string the work with multiple meanings and associations… redolent of life and vigour, of nourishment but it is also chthonic, evoking the below-ground domain – the earth from which we all come and the shadowy nether regions where food is grown and to which we will return.
Then there is food’s twin – hunger … I don’t know what the claw in the belly is like – have never experienced how hunger must gnaw at your mind as well as in your body.
From the essay by Anne Carson on the origin of the prize published on The Blue Corner (blog of Going Down Swinging) http://goingdownswinging.org.au/site/food-for-thought-the-birth-of-the-secondbite-poetry-prize/
SecondBite Poetry Competition Guidelines
SecondBite Poetry Competition Entry Form
For more information about the prize you may like to read the following mini-essays on SecondBite, the judges and food-related issues.
An introduction to the SecondBite Poetry Competition
Announcing the Judges of the SecondBite Poetry Prize
Rebecca Lindberg is a PHD candidate at Deakin. Her research area is food insecurity in Australia and she has used SecondBite as a case study. Recently she won Deakin’s 3 Minute Thesis (TMT) competition. Go to the following link for more information including a YouTube clip of her presentation.
http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/stories/2013/07/18/sydney-here-we-come
https://www.youtube.com/watchv=T57FitEbbZc&list=PLRSY8ao51JegASdFh4SRMntMKgo5_575z&index=5