The University of Queensland Press, established an independent publishing house in 1948, has grown to become one of Australia’s acclaimed literary presses. In the last 35 years, UQP has published many of Australia’s best-known contemporary poets.
UQP’s first poetry title came in 1968 with the publication of Roger McDonald’s first book, Citizens of Mist, followed by Thomas Shapcott’s Inwards to the Sun in 1969. In 1970 UQP launched the Paperback Poets series with three now-iconic titles: David Malouf’s Bicycle and Other Poems, Michael Dransfield’s Streets of the Long Voyage and Rodney Hall’s Heaven, in a Way.
In 2003 Bronwyn Lea became the fifth in a line of UQP poetry editors, beginning with Roger McDonald, Thomas Shapcott, Martin Duwell, and Sue Abbey. Her titles won many awards, with UQP poetry titles winning the coveted Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize in four consecutive years. She established the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize and The Best Australian Poetry series in 2003.
Bronwyn discusses her appointment as poetry editor at UQP with Stylus Poetry Journal.
Bronwyn Lea’s poetry list as UQP Poetry Editor
(2004-10)
2010
tom shapcott, parts of us
2009
felicity plunkett, vanishing point
Winner: Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, 2008 Commended: FAW Anne Elder Poetry Award, 2009 Shortlist: Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards, 20102008
sarah holland–batt, aria
Winner: Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, 2007 Winner: Australian Capital Territory Poetry Award, 2009 Winner: FAW Anne Elder Poetry Award, 2009 Shortlist: NSW Premier’s Kenneth Slessor Prize, 2009 Shortlist: Queensland Premier’s Judith Wright Calanthe Prize, 2009 Shortlist: ASAL Mary Gilmore Award for a First Book of Poetry, 2010anthony lawrence, bark
Shortlist: The Age Book of the Year Award, 2008 Shortlist: Queensland Premier’s Judith Wright Calanthe Prize, 2008john kinsella, divine comedy
Shortlist: The Age Book of the Year Award, 2009 Shortlist: Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, 2009: Shortlist: Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, 2008david malouf, revolving days: selected poems
david brooks, the balcony
Shortlist: NSW Premier’s Kenneth Slessor Prize, 20092007
peter skryznecki, old/new world
kathryn lomer, two kinds of silence
Winner: NSW Premier’s Kenneth Slessor Prize, 2008david malouf, typewriter music
Winner: Queensland Premier’s Judith Wright Calanthe Prize, 2008 Shortlist: NSW Premier’s Kenneth Slessor Prize, 2008 Shortlist: Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, 2008 Shortlist: The Age Book of the Year Award, 2008 Shortlist: Colin Roderick Award, 2007dimitris tsaloumas, helen of troy and other poems
angela gardner, parts of speech
Winner: Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, 20062006
nathan shepherdson, sweeping the light back into the mirror
Winner: Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, 2005 Winner: ASAL Mary Gilmore Award, 2008 Shortlist: FAW Anne Elder Award, 2007laurie duggan, the passenger
Winner: Arts QLD Judith Wright Calanthe Poetry Prize, 2007 Shortlist: NSW Premier’s Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize, 2007mtc cronin, the flower, the thing
Winner: Victorian Premier’s C J Dennis Poetry Prize, 2005
Bronwyn Lea 