Poetry Prize
The Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Prize
In 2016 at the age of 93, the poet and activist Venie Holmgren passed away. To honour his mother, David established the Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Prize, which has been held annually since 2016.
Each year two esteemed judges are selected to choose a winning poem and two highly commended poems, which are announced at Daylesford’s Words in Winter festival, held annually in August. Also announced at the festival is the Packing Room Prize, a poem chosen by the Holmgren Design office staff.
Holmgren Design is proud to partner with Rabbit: a journal for nonfiction poetry in presenting The Venie Prize.
About Venie
In her late 50’s Venie Holmgren began to write poetry and her first published anthology, The Sun Collection for the Planet in 1989, became a poetry ‘best seller’. At the same time, she applied her environmental activist skills and commitment to the campaign to save native forests near her home on the far south coast of NSW, where she was arrested twice for obstructing log trucks.
After 16 years of solo self-reliant living she moved to the local town of Pambula where she penned her travel memoir, several more books of poetry and travelled widely as a performance poet.
In 2010 Venie moved to Hepburn where she wrote her last poetry collection, The Tea-house Poems. In January 2016, Venie ‘caught the bus’ at the age of 93 .
You can read more of Venie’s life in this article by The Guardian.
Winners for 2023
Winner
i watch a cat choke / call it [redacted] by Tim Loveday
Highly commended
Burn Over by George Yankovich
Mambenha Paarka by Brenda Saunders
Previous winning entries
Read the previous year's winning and highly commended poems:
Winner
i watch a cat choke / call it [redacted] by Tim Loveday
Highly commended
Burn Over by George Yankovich
Mambenha Paarka by Brenda Saunders
Winner
Below the Summit
by Kristen Lang
Highly commended
Local Astronomy
by Jennifer Harrison
Bogong – a Lament
by Sue Aldred
Manna Ash
by Stephanie Powell
Clear and Ancient Shadow
by Danielle Baldock
Winner
‘Carried from Hell’s Gate, Tasmania’ by Kerry Greer
Highly commended
Saving Angelthe by Meg Mooney
Carving the Golem by Kristen Lang
Winner
Anthropocene Poetics Part 2 by Noemie Huttner-Koros
Due to Covid, the 2021 Venie Environmental Poetry Prize was presented online. You can view the presentation here.
Highly commended
Tracks by Ryan Dickinson
Toolangi by Simone King
Winner
God instructs His Angels to Burn the Notre Dame by Hailey Bonner
Highly Commended
A Heart Like This by Kristen Lang
The Poem After Forests by Frances Johnson
The Packing Room Prize
Greengage Plums in Preston by Kiara Lindsay
Winner
Ode to Earth by Shari Kocher
Highly commended
Nature is a Misreading by Michael Farrell
The Dingo Poem by JP Quinton
Honourable mentions
Plastic Free July by Connor Weightman
Three Teared Wedding Cake by Dennis Garvey
Co-winners
Hamlet in the Mind of a School Teacher by Michael Farrell
Journey, the South Coast by Mark Miller
Highly Commended
Painting Trees at Valla by Brian Purcell
Black Swan Polyptych by Stuart Barnes
How We Get Through Accidentally by Geraldine Burrowes
Transgression of the Trees by Jeff Guess
Packing Room Prize
Death of a Gardener by Gary Smith
