2017 ACT Writing and Publishing Awards

My book, For All The Veronicas (The Dog Who Staid), was shortlisted in the poetry category for the 2017 ACT Writing and Publishing Awards.

This is my second book and it was developed with an ArtsACT Project Grant during 2015, and the work also benefited from residencies in El Bruc, Catalonia, and at the Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres, both during 2014. I haven’t had poetry nominated for a prize previously so I was stoked to have the book make the shortlist in this ACT award and excited to have it receive a prize.

This is what the judges had to say about it:

‘Andrew Galan's collection is distinct, varied, and engaging. His poems challenge the reader, and do not allow for an easy interpretation. Some require re-readings to fathom both the narrative and metaphorical thrust. It’s a rich collection, with a clear influence drawn from performance poetry, and Galan utilizes conversational, disrupted rhythms to achieve something unique. The imagery is vivid, always inventive, and some individual lines are highly memorable, “You can look in strange places for fathers and you don't always grow out of it.” ’

Congrats to the other two shortlisted award winners, Chris Palmer with Afterlives, and Carmel Summers who edited The Last Day Before Snow, you can see the full list of awards given on the night at the ACT Writers Centre website.

Bareknuckle Poet Annual 002 2016

Bareknuckle Poet Annual 002 2016 1st Edition 2016 Edited by Brentley Frazer & A. G. Pettet.

Pre-order at BKP!

Including work from: Hasti Abbasi, Venero Armanno, Mandy Beaumont, John Birmingham, David Ades, John Ashbery, Peter Bakowski, Bill Berkson, Ashley Elizabeth Best, Robbie Coburn, Deborah Conway, Stuart Cooke, Brett Dionysius, Michael Dransfield, Liam Ferney, Cal Freeman, Andrew Galan, Amy Hempel, Matt Hetherington, Rose Hunter, Lachlan Jarrah, John Kinsella, Robert Lort, Sophie MacNeill, Margaret Malone, Ian McBryde, Frank O’Hara, Chuck Palahniuk, Angela Peita, Laura Ellen Scott, Tom Shapcott, Tom Spanbauer, David Stavanger, Mark Terrill, Samuel Wagan Watson, John Wainwright, Ashleigh Watson, Edward Willes, Ouyang Yu + more

Bareknuckle Poet

Brisbane publisher Bareknuckle Books have put out the first of their annual anthologies, Bareknuckle Poet: Annual Anthology Volume 1 and I have two poems inside, along with poems from a selection of writers who have been previously published at the Bareknuckle Poet Journal of Letters the anthology also contains fiction, non-fiction and an essay.

One of the poems I have in there was published in an earlier iteration by Grapple Publishing in their Grapple Annual Volume 1; this current version has been heavily re-worked for my forthcoming book, for all the veronicas (The Dog Who Staid). You can read a bit about development of the poem and the manuscript during my residency at the Can Serrat International Art Centre in El Bruc, Catalonia.

The second poem had not previously been published and it too will be in my new book. The poem is titled Chinlips. It is inspired by time working at Victoria Barracks on Oxford Street in Sydney just before I moved to Canberra.

The main barracks block, Victoria Barracks, Sydney

The anthology features work from excellent writers who are close to me, such as David Stavanger, Matt Hetherington and Eleanor Jackson, as well as work from a host of names familiar from international and Australian publications, including John Tranter, Todd Swift and Samuel Wagon Watson.