The CJ Dennis Prize for Poetry: Winner 2007

Jack

Judy Johnson
(Pandanus Press)

Judges report

The verse-novel is a genre that has become fashionable, but with varied degrees of success. Jack is one of the rare triumphs in this mode. The narrative is compelling, characters powerful, and the setting at once squalid and rich. The tension sustained here between a claustrophobic pearling lugger and the seductive tropical seas is unrelenting. And so, the reader is trapped.