Mildura Writers' Festival

Calibre Prize

Since announcing the joint winners of the third Calibre Prize, we have received many compliments for Jane Goodall’s and Kevin Brophy’s winning essays, and various expressions of support for Calibre. Several of these appear on our website, and this month we also publish letters from Elisabeth Holdsworth inaugural winner of the Calibre Prize in 2007 and from Nicholas Jose, who also writes about the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature in this issue.

It is very pleasing to be able to announce that Copyright Agency Limited, through its Cultural Fund, will sponsor the fourth Calibre Prize, for which ABR now seeks entries. Once again the Prize is worth $10,000, making it one of the world’s most lucrative awards for a new essay. This year we are adding a second Prize Young Calibre which is open to those aged twenty-one and under. Young Calibre is worth $3000 not a bad start for a brilliant secondary student or undergraduate. More details appear on page 9, and both sets of guidelines and entry forms are available on our website or from the ABR office.

Clive James in Mildura

The Mildura Writers’ Festival, held over a weekend in late July, consolidated its reputation as one of Australia’s most pleasurable literary festivals. When, we wonder, will tout Melbourne and Sydney realise how good it is, and make the journey. Clive James opened the festival with a memorable lecture on questions of celebrity and the poetry of Philip Hodgins. We have much pleasure in publishing his 2003 La Trobe University/Australian Book Review Annual Lecture in this issue.