Tim Thorne Prize for Poetry

Winner

say, a river by Pam Schindler (Ginninderra Press, 2023)

Judges’ comments:

The fifty-two poems in Pam Schindler’s say, a river are concise, sensitive works that celebrate the natural landscapes of Tasmania, Southern Queensland and Scotland with beautiful images washed lightly with colours and a river’s moving waters.

The poet embraces and personifies these landscapes so evocatively that the reader is drawn into their presence: a storm is ‘a clot of dark gestures’ like ‘flung brushstrokes’; jellyfish are ‘like heavy-petalled glass flowers’; and the ‘sudden hail sharp around our ears / sang, and flew, and glittered’.

The poet’s painterly images come alive on the banks of the Noosa River:

I daub-in the tumbling sea roar,
distance-dimmed,
and on that ground
I stub the crow-notes, crooned, effortful,
dark paint squirted from the tube.

Schindler also considers matters of human love and loss where senses of yearning and absence are heightened by the quiet dignity of her emotionally restrained writing. Natural landscapes feature as means of both consolation and healing. After devastating fires ‘the small creek is singing its stones again’, and later, in different circumstances ,‘the wind comes to us with brown arms / with bare sandy feet’.

One of the most powerful of these poems of loss is ‘The keeping of your heart’ in which specific features of the natural world - bluebells, a magpie ‘high in a hoop-pine’, a ginger fox - prompt memories of the lost one and form for the poet ‘part / of the keeping of your heart’.

The poetic crafting in say, a river is sensitively wrought and deeply elegant. Pam Schindler is the most worthy recipient of the 2025 Tim Thorne Prize for Poetry.

Shortlist

Click on the book category tiles below to see the shortlisted books or view the full list (PDF 451.1 KB).

Afterlife

More about Afterlife

say, a river

More about say, a river

slack tide

More about slack tide

Ways to say goodbye

More about Ways to say goodbye

AfterLife by Kathryn Lomer (Puncher & Wattmann, 2023)
say, a river by Pam Schindler (Ginninderra Press, 2023)
Slack Tide by Sarah Day (Pitt Street Poetry, 2022)
Ways to Say Goodbye by Anne Kellas (Liquid Amber Press, 2023)

Judges’ comments

AfterLife by Kathryn Lomer

Kathryn Lomer’s AfterLife is a powerful exploration of lost love and new beginnings. Her poems explore threads of connectivity and kinship with all living creatures and celebrate both the ephemeral nature of life and the immortality of beauty. The impact of the poet’s sensitive and cleverly wrought imagery is enhanced by her skilful use of the long poetic line and mastery of a variety of forms.

say, a river by Pam Schindler

Pam Schindler's artistry is impressive, her tones gentle and painterly, and her images washes of colour and movement. Her concise and elegant poems mix love and loss and the natural landscapes of predominantly Tasmania and south-east Queensland. There is a quiet dignity here in the missing of a person gone, a deep acknowledgement of something more than grief.

Slack Tide by Sarah Day

The sensitively crafted poems in Slack Tide address both personal and environmental concerns, and the human condition more generally. Sarah Day sustains the titular metaphor across her ninth collection, and communicates ideas and feelings with facility and in a poetic voice that is quietly reflective and accessible.

Ways to Say Goodbye by Anne Kellas

The quiet and compelling poems of Ways to Say Goodbye call attention to grief and resilience, remembering and letting go. Anne Kellas is a technically brilliant poet unafraid of exploring various forms, including abstract and ekphrastic poems, and confident of using beautiful and unusual language.

Extraction by Kim Nielson-Creeley (highly commended)

Kim Nielsen-Creeley's first published collection features intelligent and richly informed observations on how place impacts people. The poems are both reflective and vulnerable, and the reader gains deep insights into both Tasmania's North West and the author's life-long response to her environment. This is a promising debut.