Evelyn Araluen has won both the $100,000 Victorian prize for literature and the $25,000 Indigenous writing category at this year\u2019s Victorian premier\u2019s literary awards, for her second poetry collection The Rot.<\/p>\n
Selected from almost 700 books entered for the prize, The Rot<\/a> won the two awards on Thursday night, having also been shortlisted in the poetry category. The Goorie and Koori poet won the 2022 Stella prize<\/a>, and was shortlisted for three premier\u2019s literary prizes, for her debut collection Dropbear.<\/p>\n Speaking before she was aware she had also won the overall prize, Araluen told Guardian Australia she was \u201cexcited\u201d to have won the $25,000 Indigenous writing category. Asked if she felt she might have a chance at the top prize, she replied: \u201cOh God no, I\u2019m not getting a look in at that. I\u2019ll be quite comfortable with my prize, thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n The judges called The Rot \u201ca work of remarkable poetic intelligence; formally bold, emotionally exacting and politically uncompromising\u201d and \u201ca vital intervention in this country\u2019s cultural conversation.\u201d It was written in the span of a few months last year, and was inspired by her experience reading two poems at Adelaide writers\u2019 week in 2024, where she was heckled for referring to Israel\u2019s killing of Palestinians in Gaza as a genocide on stage.<\/p>\n \u201cThese poems were about witnessing a genocide and the feeling of inertia and grief and rage and passivity that sits in the body when you feel so powerless against our government\u2019s complicity in that genocide,\u201d Araluen said. \u201cI had people get up and leave and shout at me and have a go at me \u2026 I shouted back and felt so enraged. But I had incredibly beautiful people coming up to me afterwards, some of them crying, saying the poems had helped them understand how they have been feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n After she won the Stella for Dropbear, Araluen spoke about how she had been \u201cone paycheck away from complete poverty<\/a>\u201d, juggling multiple temporary jobs in the arts while working on her debut. She has since taken a full-time job as an academic, which she said initially \u201cfelt like a compromise\u201d but had \u201callowed me the safety to be able to write more.\u201d<\/p>\n She worked on The Rot \u201cafter work, after dinner, in the bath\u201d for months, though she now admits that such prolonged focus on such a traumatic subject was \u201cirresponsible of me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI do not recommend drinking wine in the bath and listening to Mitski and crying and calling that a writing practice,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n The Rot reflects \u201ca really panicked, distressed window of a time, that I hope we all look back on with horror and despair and a real sense of regret,\u201d Araluen said.<\/p>\n \u201cI tried to make sure that the book very clearly documented that we knew what was happening in our names and we did not stop it,\u201d she added. \u201cI hope that this book dates. I hope it reads as incredibly naive and doesn\u2019t catch a glimpse of the political ambitions that are going to be realised in the future. But if it doesn\u2019t, I want it to be a record of a very, very uncomfortable truth that we\u2019re all going to have to live with.\u201d<\/p>\n double quotation markI tried to make sure that the book very clearly documented that we knew what was happening in our names and we did not stop it<\/p>\n Araluen also called on the Australian government to reform the way arts prizes are taxed. Some, like the prime minister\u2019s literary awards, are tax-free, but most, including the Stella and all the state premier literary awards, are taxed as income.<\/p>\n \u201cWinning the Stella prize was really fantastic but it was taxed at nearly 50%,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you spend sometimes years of your life working on something, and you have good fortune that you can\u2019t have possibly planned for or anticipated, the impact of a prize can sometimes be quite disruptive financially.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOther countries have really intelligent taxation laws that allow artists to continue working in periods of heightened prosperity versus significantly lower incomes. This is not me saying, I don\u2019t believe in tax. Obviously tax is incredibly important. But a lot of people assumed I must suddenly be rich after the Stella, and once you take out tax and Hecs debts and I needed to get my teeth fixed and we had used our superannuation to survive Covid \u2026 we don\u2019t really have the advantage of solid, sustainable investment we can rely on.\u201d<\/p>\n In other categories at the Victorian premier\u2019s literary awards, this year\u2019s $2,000 people\u2019s choice award went to Discipline by Randa Abdel-Fattah, the Australian-Palestinian academic who was controversially dumped from this year\u2019s Adelaide writers\u2019 week, a decision that triggered the collapse of the annual literary event<\/a>.<\/p>\n