Indigenous Issue

ABR will launch its Indigenous issue at Readings Carlton on 6 October at 6.30 pm, with not so much as a backward glance to Zoom launches. Guest editors Professor Lynette Russell AM, Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor and ARC Laureate at the Monash Indigenous Studies Centre and ABR Assistant Editor and author Dr Georgina Arnott will be in conversation about the issue.

Everyone is most welcome. The event is free, but bookings are essential and can be made via the Readings Events page.

Prizes Galore

Poets from around the world have until midnight (AEST) on 9 October to submit their poems to the Peter Porter Poetry Prize. Now in its twentieth year, the Porter Prize is worth a total of AU$10,000 – with a first prize of $6,000. The five shortlisted poems will be published in the January–February 2024 issue, and the winner will be announced at a ceremony later that month.

The 2024 Calibre Essay Prize opens on 23 October, with a closing date of 22 January 2024 and total prize money of $10,000. This is the eighteenth time we have offered the Calibre Prize, now one of the world’s leading awards for a new essay written in English. We welcome non-fiction of between 2,000 and 5,000 words – on any subject.

All of the winning Calibre essays are available in our digital archive, to which ABR subscribers have full access.

This year we are able to offer a third prize, worth $2,000. (The winner will receive $5,000, the runner-up $3,000.)

Continuing thanks to founding Patrons Peter McLennan and Mary-Ruth Sindrey, whose generous support enables us to offer Calibre in this lucrative form.

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation

ABR is delighted to support the Indigenous Literacy Foundation in this issue, an organisation which provides books to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. As well as distributing books from around the world, the ILF facilitates the publication of books created by these communities, many in First Languages and for children. To date, the ILF have published 109 books in thirty-one languages. For more details of the ILF’s impressive work, visit https://www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au/