Anne Elder Award
The Anne Elder Trust Fund Award for poetry was administered by the Victorian branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers from its establishment in 1976 until 2017. From 2018 the award has been administered by Australian Poetry. It is awarded annually, as the Anne Elder Award, for the best first book of poetry published in Australia. It was established in 1976 and currently has a prize of A$1000 for the winner. The award is named after Australian poet Anne Elder.
Award winners
Note: the award is made for a particular year of publication, but presented in the following year.Prior to 2004
1977: Laurie Duggan, East ; and Graeme Curtis, At Last No Reply 1978: Lee Cataldi, Invitation to a Marxist lesbian party 1979: Les Harrop, The Hum of the Old Suit: Poems 1980: Richard Lunn, Pompeii Deep Fry 1981: Gig Ryan, The Division of Anger and Jenny Boult, The Hotel Anonymous 1982: Kate Llewellyn, Trader Kate and the Elephants ; and Peter Goldsworthy, Readings from Ecclesiastes 1983: David Brooks, The Cold Front 1984: Doris Brett, The Truth about Unicorns and Max Richards, Under Mount Egmont and Other Poems 1985: Stephen J Williams, A Crowd of Voices 1986: Jan Owen, Boy with Telescope 1987: Sarah Day, A Hunger to be Less Serious 1988: Alex Skovron, The Rearrangement 1989: Mark Miller, Conversing with Stones 1990: Jean Kent, Verandahs and Barry Hill, Raft: Poems 1983-1990 1991: Alison Croggon, This is the Stone 1992: Nicolette Stasko, Abundance 1993: Terry Whitebeach, Bird Dream in Four New Poets 1994: Not awarded1995: Jennifer Harrison, Michelangelo's Prisoners 1996: Marcella Polain, Dumbstruck 1997: Morgan Yasbincek, Night Reversing 1998: Jane Williams, Outside Temple Boundaries and Amanda Stewart, I/T: Selected poems 1980–1996 1999: Not awarded2000:- * Winner: Arthur M. Spyrou, Garden of Delights
- * Second prize: Brook Emery, and dug my fingers in the sand
- * Highly Commended: Jen Crawford, Admissions
- * Highly Commended: Samuel Wagan Watson Muse, Meandering and Midnight 2001: Not awarded2002: Bronwyn Lea, Flight Animals 2003: Chris Andrews, Cut Lunch and Kathryn Lomer, ''Extraction of Arrows''
2004">2004 in Australian literature">2004
Winner: Lidija Cvetkovic, War is not the Season for Figs Highly Commended: Peter Lyssiotis, The Bird, The Belltower ; Miriam Wei Wei Lo, Against Certain Capture Commended: Lucy Alexander Feathered Tongues ; David Musgrave ''To Thalia''2005">2005 in Australian literature">2005
Winner: Max Ryan, Rainswayed Night Highly commended: Lucy Holt, Stories of Bird Commended: Luis Gonzalez Serrano, ''Cities with Moveable Parts''2006">2006 in Australian literature">2006
Winner: Libby Hart, Fresh News from the Arctic Highly Commended: Luke Beesley, Lemon Shark ; Francesca Haig Bodies of Water ; and Paul Magee Cube root of book Commended: Jennifer Chrystie, Polishing the Silver ; Nathan Shepherdson, Sweeping the Light Back into the Mirror ; and Simon West, ''First Names''2007">2007 in Australian literature">2007
Winner: Judith Bishop, Event Commended: Elizabeth Campbell, Letters to the Tremulous Hand ; Sarah French, Songs Orphans Sing ; Hal Judge, Someone Forgot to Tell the Fish ; and Petra White, ''The Incoming Tide''2008">2008 in Australian literature">2008
Winner: Sarah Holland-Batt, Aria ; and Sandy Fitts, View from the Lucky Hotel Highly Commended: Elizabeth Hodgson, Skin Painting Commended: David Adès Mapping the World ; and Carol Jenkins, ''Fishing in the Devonians''2009">2009 in Australian literature">2009
Winner: Emma Jones, The Striped World- Highly Commended: Emily Ballou, The Darwin Poems
- Commended: Felicity Plunkett, ''Vanishing Point''
2010">2010 in Australian literature">2010
Winner: Rosanna Licari, An Absence of Saints- Highly Commended: Andy Jackson, Among the Regulars
- Commended: Rachael Petridis, Sundecked ; Chloe Wilson, The Mermaid Problem ; Peter Coghill, The Rockclimber's Hands ; and Leah Kaminsky, ''Stitching Things Together''
2011
Winner: Mags Webster, The Weather of Tongues- Commended: Vladislav Neklianv, Another Babylon; Fiona Wright, ''Knuckled''
2012
Winner: Elizabeth Allen, Body Language Highly Commended: Eileen Chong, Burning Rice Commended: Toby Finch, Rawshock ; Susan McCreery, Waiting for Southerly ;2013
Winner: Vanessa Page, Confessional Box Commended: Susan Adams, Beside Rivers ; Luke Fischer, Paths of Flight ; Vanessa Kirkpatrick, To Catch the Light ; Ainslee Meredith, ''Pinetorch''2014
Winner: Cathy Altmann, ''Circumnavigation''2015
- Winner: John Hawke, Aurelia
- Highly commended: Shari Kocher, The Non-Sequitur of Snow, Linda Weste, ''Nothing Sacred''
2016
- Winner: Berndt Sellheim, Awake at the Wheel
- Commended: Stuart Barnes (poet), Glasshouses, Lisa Brockwell, Earth Girls, J. H. Crone, Our Lady of the Fence Post, Susan Varga, Rupture
- Special Mention: Carmine Frascarelli, ''Sydney Road Poems''
2017
- Winner: Rico Craig, Bone Ink
- Highly commended: Bella Li, Argosy
- Commended: Shastra Deo, The Agonist, Omar Sakr, ''These Wild Houses''
2018
- Winner: Eunice Andrada, Flood Damages
- Commended: Maryam Azam, The Hijab Files, Marjon Mossammaparast, That Sight, Lindsay Tuggle, Calenture and Rae White, ''Milk Teeth''
2019
- Winners: Cham Zhi Yi, blur by the, Gareth Sion Jenkins, Recipes for the Disaster
- Commended: Alice Allan, The Empty Show, Belinda Rule, ''The Things the Mind Sees Happen''
2020
- Winner: Ella Jeffrey, Dead Bolt
- Commended: Luke Best, Cadaver Dog ; Rebecca Jessen, ''Ask Me About the Future''
2021
Winner: Audrey Molloy, The Important Things Highly Commended: Evelyn Araluen, Dropbear ; Lucy Van, The Open ; Damen O'Brien, Animals With Human Voices Commended: James Lucas, ''Rare Bird''2022
Joint Winners:- * Harry Reid, Leave Me Alone
- * Theodore Ell, Beginning In Sight Highly Commended: Rebecca Cheers, No Camellias ; Moya Costello, Pressed Specimens ; Gavin Yuan Gao, ''At the Altar of Touch''