Caroline Caddy wins prestigious University of Melbourne poetry prize

Western Australian poet Caroline Caddy has won the 2008 Wesley Michel Wright Prize in Poetry for Esperance (Fremantle Press).

The win follows the work’s inclusion in the 2008 short lists for other major awards including the John Bray Poetry Award at the Adelaide Writers’ Festival and the Western Australian Premier’s Award.

From her home in South Western WA Caddy said she was happy with the result.

“I’m pleased that poems like mine, which focus on the interactions between Australia and other countries and cultures, are gaining appreciation,” said Caddy who, though born in Perth, spent much of her childhood in North America and Japan.

“At this point in my career, I still have a lot of work ahead of me including another book in the pipeline,” she said.

New Publisher for Poetry and Fiction Georgia Richter said the award was an exciting way to start her career with Fremantle Press.

“It caps off a great year which saw all three of our most recent poetry collections gaining recognition in local and national short lists,” she said.

The Wesley Michel Wright Prize in Poetry is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne and is worth $4000. The award is open to an author or composer of original verse or poetry in the English language who is a citizen of Australia.

Caddy has published seven poetry collections, been the recipient of a WA Literary Award for Poetry and a National Book Council’s Banjo Award in 1992. Her work has been broadcast on ABC Radio National and published in numerous literary magazines and anthologies.

Esperance (Fremantle Press, $24.95) is available from all good bookstores or click here to buy it online.

The author is available for interview.