Congratulations Sarah Holland-Batt!

The Australian has chosen Sarah Holland-Batt’s The Jaguar as its Book of the Year for 2022.

Caroline Overington writes:

“This poetry collection seek to capture Holland-Batt’s rage and sadness and her acceptance of her father’s death. It has been praised by critics across the globe; it is poetry as succour.

‘My dad’s experiences with Parkinson’s were surreal, eccentric and tragic, but also full of tenderness, humour and affection: qualities which can get lost when we speak of old age and the end of life,” she said. “The Jaguar was my way of reckoning with the ways the disease changed my father, as well his love, humanity and brilliance, which endured through all the change.’

The Australian’s Book of the Year doesn’t come with any money or even a statue. It is a simple, even humble gesture of the deepest admiration and appreciation, by all who work on the books pages at The Australian.

‘It is lovely, unexpected news,’ said Holland-Batt. ‘A delight, at the end of a long year.’

Holland-Batt has won many national literary awards, among them the Judith Wright Poetry Prize and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry. She has been a recipient of the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship and, in 2021, she became the first poet appointed the Judy Harris Writer in Residence at the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney.

Holland-Batt has also, since the death of her father, become an advocate for the aged, testifying on his behalf at the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.”

For the full story go to https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts