Jennifer Kornberger has become the first poet living in Western Australian to win one of Australia’s richest prizes for a single poem. Source: ACU.
The poet and artist from Fremantle has won first prize, worth $10,000, in the Australian Catholic University’s Prize for Poetry national competition, the first from Western Australia since the competition began in 2013.
Kornberger’s award-winning poem, In the Back of the Ambulance – which beat 677 entries on the theme “Witness” – reflects on her unexpected visit to the hospital while travelling through Austria.
“I woke one morning to find that I was completely incapacitated,” Kornberger said.
“The world was spinning out of control, and I was overcome with attendant retching. I had the sensation of continuously falling into an abyss.
“I just felt like I was dying.”
Kornberger was unknowingly suffering from a severe case of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV).
In the poem, she describes her interactions with a young paramedic, who had used his right to refuse mandatory military service and instead chose civilian service. Kornberger, despite having severe vertigo and not speaking German, used the 20-minute ambulance ride to become “a paramedic of poetry”.
“On the drive to the hospital, we became a gift for each other,” she said.
“In the small space and time that we occupied there was a palpable presence; it was as if we had found a new language of simultaneous giving and receiving. I am forever grateful for this extraordinary experience.”
ACU Prize for Poetry judges Emeritus Professor Margot Hillel OAM and Professor Robert H. F. Carver said In the Back of the Ambulance was full of humanity, and praised its “beautiful lyricism”.
“That gift between Kornberger and the young paramedic has been turned into a gift to us in this beautiful poem,” Professor Hillel said.
“Although it recalls an experience in Austria, there’s a universality in her poem – the way two people can come together in a particularly meaningful way in the midst of an emergency, even though they probably won’t ever see each other again.”
“Kornberger exemplifies poetry as a healing art.”
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Catholic Mission) Fr Gerry Gleeson said entries for this year’s poetry prize came close to breaking the competition’s record high number in 2021.
Mary Wickham from Melbourne won second prize worth $5000 for her poem Angel while Linda McQuarrie-Bowerman from New South Wales has taken out third prize of $3000 for her entry Looking Upward.
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Fremantle poet makes history winning ACU Prize for Poetry (ACU)
