Tony Birch

I was just so astounded and pleased by the quality.

And I think it is absolutely vital, an award for the recognition that it gives.

It's had such an impact on young writers in particular.

It certainly had an amazing impact on First Nations writers.

And I think that the work done by the Stella Foundation more broadly, so people may or may not know that there's also a lot of work done with schools.

There's programs throughout the year.

So it's not an award like the Miles Franklin Award, which is really...

something that sort of happens around a few weeks of the year.

The Stella Foundation are doing work right across the year with readers, with schools, et cetera.

It probably flies under the radar a bit, and that's okay because it's working at the community level.

So they're working at a level where us who see the award winners or the shortlist get to engage and read those books.

But there's a lot of stuff that we don't even hear about that is being done at a local community level, which is equally important.

To be honest, I think Evelyn Araluen is just the major poet working in Australia today.

I mean that.

I know it sounds a bit sort of over the top, but I really feel that.

Drop Bear, her previous book, her first book that won the seller, was a remarkable collection.

I think this collection, it shows incredible intellect and

incredible power of language and then great insight into contemporary and historical life in Australia and contemporary life globally.

It is a work of poetry that deals with very, sometimes very complex issues, particularly dealing, as we are, with the war on Gaza, which is apparent in this book, dealing, of course, with issues of colonial history and the colonial legacy of violence in Australia.

But Evan Arulona is also acutely aware of the place of, you know, for want of a better word, of popular culture, of social media, of our unnecessary concerns about how we look and how we feel and the superficiality of that.