“THERE is no culture that does not have poetry,” the retiring University of Canberra vice-chancellor, Prof Deep Saini, told a crowd at CMAG on Monday (October 21).

“Like smiling and crying and laughing – it is just there,” he said.

Prof Saini was on hand to announce that Pennsylvania poet Paula Bohince had won the UC Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize for her poem “Insomniac at the Ice Shack”.

Bohince has published three poetry collections, most recently “Swallows and Waves” and her poems have appeared in “Australian Book Review” and “The New Yorker” and “Best American Poetry”.

In her video acceptance speech, during which she read her poem, she thanked festival director Shane Strange for guiding her through the process.

“I wrote ‘Insomniac at the Ice Shack’ to explore love and shame and the ways they can bring people together; the ways in which they can be isolating, the ways that people deal with pain,” she said.

“Sometimes that is through art making and poetry making, which was the case for me with this poem.”

Now in its fifth year, the $15,000 award is a highlight UC’s Poetry on the Move summit and is always judged by a panel of eminent poets, this year Paul Munden, Kei Miller and Tricia Dearborn.

Prof Saini told those present how he heard that UC is praised as far afield as Harvard for its poetry prize, which he described as “our contribution to further the cause of poetry”.

Australian author Ivy Ireland was named as the runner up with her poem “The Owl Inside, which she read”. Shortlistees included Sue Wootton from New Zealand, Madeleine Dale from Queensland, and Mark Svenold and Kimberly Williams from the US.

“Silence”, an anthology of works entered in the 2019 UC Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize is available at the UC bookshop.