UWA Publishing has celebrated its tenth anniversary of publishing Australian poetry with the release of four significant titles this month.
In 2008, Martin Harrison’s Wild Bees: New and Selected Poems was the first collection published, and since then UWAP has been committed to delivering the best in Australian poetic writing. The Australian Classic Poetry series publishes significant Australian poetry that had fallen out of print. and includes Lesbia Harford, Anna Wickham, John Shaw Neilson and Francis Webb.
In late 2016 UWA Publishing launched UWAP Poetry, an imprint dedicated to contemporary Australian poets. The first two years of UWAP Poetry has seen two major award wins and numerous shortlistings: Susan Fealy's Flute of Milk won the prestigious 2017 Wesley Michel Wright Prize and the 2018 NSW Society of Women Writers Book Award, and Quinn Eades' Rallying won the 2018 Mary Gilmore Award for best first collection.
UWA Publishing Director Terri-ann White said UWAP’s commitment to poetry has seen it become one of the biggest publishers of poetry in Australia.
'We are proud to be publishing twelve poetry titles per year, giving voice to emerging and established Australian poets with distinctive voices and styles,' she said.
'Our decision in 2016 to create our imprint was at a time when the future of Australian poetry appeared to be shaky.
'We rose to the challenge of funding cuts and have continued to support Australian poets and take their work to an enthusiastic readership.'
White said over the past decade UWAP had been privileged to publish outstanding poets including Judy Johnson, Bruce Dawe, David McCooey, and Amanda Joy.
UWAP Poetry’s four October titles are: John Kinsella’s Open Door, Annamaria Weldon’s Stone Mother Tongue, Kit Kelen’s Poor Man’s Coat and 2018 Dorothy Hewett Award Winner Julie Watts’ Legacy.
Image: Western Australian poet Julie Watts, author of Legacy.