as good a woman as ever broke bread

Judges' comments

When approaching any poetry collection, there is an expectation that some, if not all, the writing will be inventive, create new forms, challenge expectations. Yet even that level of forewarning is insufficient when first reading Alex McInnis’s debut collection. This is poetry as biography, poetry as historiography, poetry as archaeology and poetry as genealogy. It is bold and brave, insightful and unforgiving. It is truly something new and audaciously, something great.

In words chosen with care and precision, yet somehow teeming with recklessly wild language, this is a single story that starts in a slave plantation in the American South and ends in grim tragedy in a Sydney street. It is also about the impact a search for history has on the seeker. A bold new voice in Australian writing.