Dropbear (book)
 | |
| Author | Evelyn Araluen |
|---|---|
| Genre | Poetry |
| Publisher | University of Queensland Press |
Publication date | 2/3/2021 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Pages | 112 |
| Awards | 2022 Stella Prize |
| ISBN | 9780702263187 |
Dropbear is a 2021 collection of poetry and prose by Evelyn Araluen, an Aboriginal poet of the Bundjalung people. Dropbear was published by University of Queensland Press in 2021 and was the winner of the 2022 Stella Prize. The book was also shortlisted for awards at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and the Queensland Literary Awards.[1] The collection has been described as part of the Indigenous "literary resistance", with Jeanine Leane writing in the Sydney Review of Books that the work "unsettles settler Australia consciousness with power and precision, leaving no colonial tropes or settler platitudes unchallenged or unscathed".[2]
Reception
[edit]The Stella Prize judges' report described Dropbear as "a breathtaking collection of poetry and short prose which arrests key icons of mainstream Australian culture and turns them inside out, with malice aforethought".[3] The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards judges described the work as "a powerful act of sovereign resistance, breaking open the intersections of power, race and colonial fantasy".[1] In a review for the Sydney Review of Books, Jeanine Leanne wrote that Dropbear "moves seamlessly between activism, literary criticism, remembrance deconstruction and confrontation".[2] The collection also received positive reviews in the Sydney Morning Herald,[4] Australian Book Review,[5] The Guardian[6] and Meanjin[7].
Reviewers praised Araluen's ability to subvert "colonial kitsch". Araluen critiques the aesthetics of the "pastoral" and the canonisation of Australian literary figures like Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson and Les Murray. Araluen suggests that these literary traditions have been used to negate Indigenous sovereignty and to justify settler colonialism.[2][7] John Kinsella wrote in a review for the Sydney Morning Herald that Araluen "plays back conventional devices and tropes, and undoes them so effectively that no colonial shibboleth is left unchallenged or undecoded".[4]
Awards
[edit]| Year | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Queensland Literary Award for Poetry | Shortlisted | [8] |
| Anne Elder Award | Highly commended | [9] | |
| 2022 | Stella Prize | Winner | [3] |
| Australian Book Industry Awards Adult Book of the Year | Winner | [10] | |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Award for Poetry | Shortlisted | [11] | |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing | Shortlisted | [12] |
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Dropbear". University of Queensland Press. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
- ^ a b c Leane, Jeanine (6 June 2021). "Staring Back". Sydney Review of Books. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
- ^ a b "Dropbear". Stella Award. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
- ^ a b Kinsella, John (30 April 2021). "Evelyn Araluen's poetry that can teach us all". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
- ^ Varatharajan, Prithvi (November 2021). "Lyric provocations". Australian Book Review. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
- ^ Fry, Declan (26 March 2021). "Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen review – a stunning scalpel wielded through Australian myths". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
- ^ a b Paloma, Melody (Spring 2021). "Rupturing Colonial Kitsch, Untangling Myth". Meanjin. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
- ^ "Queensland Literary Awards 2021 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 5 August 2021. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
- ^ "Announcing the Winner of the 2021 Anne Elder Award". Australian Poetry. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
- ^ "2022 Book Awards Shortlist". Australian Book Industry Awards. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
- ^ "NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2022 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
- ^ "Winners of the 2022 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards". Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 27 January 2025.