A first-time poet has won both the $100,000 Victorian prize for literature and the $25,000 poetry category at this year’s Victorian premier’s literary awards, becoming the first poet to win the overall award in a decade.
Selected from a record 807 books entered for the prize, Grace Yee won the awards on Thursday night for her debut collection Chinese Fish, which was initially part of her PhD on Chinese women writers in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and in part inspired by growing up in Aotearoa’s Chinese community, which dates back to the mid 19th century.
