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 awarded
- 1995: 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 awarded
- 2000:
- * 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 awarded
- 2002: 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''
2023
- Winner: Sara M. Saleh, The Flirtation of Girls/Ghazal el-Banat
- Highly Commended: Ella Skilbeck-Porter, These Are Different Waters ; Grace Yee, ''Chinese Fish''
2024
- Winner: Izzy Roberts-Orr, Raw Salt
- Highly Commended: Hasib Hourani, rock flight ; Barrina South, ''Makarra''