Sarah Holland-Batt

Born in Southport, Queensland, Sarah Holland-Batt grew up in Australia and Denver, Colorado.[http://www.pla.nsw.gov.au/awards-shortlists/kenneth-slessor-prize-for-poetry-/36?task=view New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards 2008]

She was educated at the University of Queensland, where she received First Class Honours in Literary Studies, an MPhil and PhD, and at New York University, where she was a Fulbright Scholar and attained an M. F. A.

Holland-Batt is the author of three award-winning volumes of poetry, Aria, The Hazards and The Jaguar, and a book of essays on contemporary poetry, Fishing for Lightning: The Spark of Poetry. She is also the editor of two anthologies of contemporary Australian poetry, Black Inc's The Best Australian Poems 2016 and The Best Australian Poems 2017.[http://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2016/03/04/45317/black-inc-announces-2016-best-australian-editors/ "Black Inc. announces 2016 'Best Australian' editors"], 4 March 2016, Books+Publishing Aria, Holland-Batt's first book, received the 2007 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, and was subsequently published by the University of Queensland Press in 2008. Aria subsequently won the Anne Elder Award and the Judith Wright Prize, and was shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, the Judith Wright Calanthe Award and the Mary Gilmore Prize.[https://www.uqp.com.au/authors/sarah-holland-batt/ "Sarah Holland-Batt"], University of Queensland Press

The Hazards, Holland-Batt's second volume, was published in 2015, and went on to win Australia's foremost prize for poetry, the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, in 2016. The Hazards was also shortlisted for numerous other prestigious awards, including the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, the Judith Wright Calanthe Award, the John Bray Poetry Award at the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, and the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards Poetry Prize, and was named as a book of the year in The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Australian Book Review. Holland-Batt's third collection, The Jaguar, was published in 2022,[https://www.uqp.com.au/books/the-jaguar/ "The Jaguar"], University of Queensland Press and received the 2022 Book of the Year Award from The Australian.{{cite news|last=Overington|first=Caroline|author-link=Caroline Overington|date=9 December 2022|url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/love-of-her-father-endures-in-the-wonder-of-words/news-story/7d6b1f72cd9f12494024e8715f6df8bf|title=Love of her father endures in the wonder of words|newspaper=The Australian}} {{subscription}}

Holland-Batt is the recipient of international fellowships from Yaddo and MacDowell colonies, a Hawthornden Castle residency, and an Australia Council for the Arts Literature Residency at the B. R. Whiting Studio in Rome. Her poems have appeared in numerous international newspapers, periodicals and magazines, including The New Yorker and Poetry, among others, and have been widely anthologised. In 2016, she was awarded the two-year Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship from the Myer Foundation.[https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2016/11/25/81569/holland-batt-awarded-sidney-myer-creative-fellowship/ "Holland-Batt awarded Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship"], Books+Publishing, 25 November 2016

Holland-Batt has served as a judge of the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, the Queensland Literary Awards Glendower Award, the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, the Arts Queensland Val Vallis Award, and the Australian Book Review's Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize.{{Cite web|url=http://www.australianpoetry.org/competitions/2015-australian-book-reviews-jolley-prize/|title=Australian Poetry Elizabeth Jolley Prize|access-date=30 April 2023}} From 2014 until 2019, she was the poetry editor of Island Magazine.{{cite web|url=https://www.wheelercentre.com/news/a5c06db3b409|title=Working with Words: Sarah Holland-Batt|publisher=Wheeler Centre|date=28 May 2014|access-date=11 August 2021}} She is presently chair of Australian Book Review.{{Cite web|url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/about/people/board|title=ABR Board|publisher=Australian Book Review|access-date=26 January 2025}}

Holland-Batt is professor of creative writing and literary studies at the Queensland University of Technology.{{cite web|url=https://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/sarah.hollandbatt|title=Professor Sarah Holland-Batt|access-date=19 August 2021|publisher=Queensland University of Technology}} She is also an active critic, writing for publications including The Australian, The Monthly and Australian Book Review. The Australian appointed Holland-Batt in 2020 as their columnist for poetry.{{cite web|last=Sorensen|first=Rosemary|author-link=Rosemary Sorensen|date=14 February 2020|url=https://dailyreview.com.au/handout-for-arts-journalism-misses-the-mark/|title=Handout for arts journalism 'misses the mark'|website=Daily Review|access-date=10 June 2021}}

The Sydney Powerhouse Museum commissioned Holland-Batt in 2025 to write an essay about the art of scrimshaw and the Australian whaler Alfred Evans.{{cite web|url=https://powerhouse.com.au/stories/art-idleness-and-leviathans-alfred-evans-scrimshaw#art-idleness-and-leviathans-alfred-evans-scrimshaw|access-date=16 January 2025|author=Sarah Holland-Batt|title=Art, Idleness and Leviathans: Alfred Evans' Scrimshaw|date=January 2025|publisher=Powerhouse Museum}}

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| quote = Holland-Batt's formal imagination transports the reader fluently through mythological, personal, artistic, geographical and historical landscapes. Violence, caused by the pursuit of beauty or truth, is appraised with virtuosity and unfailing precision. In the opening poem, "Medusa", Holland-Batt gives us the striking image of the drifting mind, 'pure and poisonous', drawing in its shadow as the soul billows out. This dichotomy portends the poet's almost surgical objectivity, her capacity for opening up subjects. Yet she animates these poems with the spirit of Perseus, courageously risking what is known for a language 'with a force that could break our lives'... Holland-Batt entwines the past into a rich and inventive lyricism of the present.

| source = Kenneth Slessor Prize citation for The Hazards{{Cite web|url=https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/about-library/awards/nsw-premiers-literary-awards/kenneth-slessor-prize-poetry/2016-kenneth-slessor|title=Kenneth Slessor Prize citation|access-date=30 April 2023}}

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Holland-Batt's work has frequently been praised for its lyricism, linguistic precision, and metaphorical dexterity.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}} Holland-Batt's debut collection, Aria, was described as "most impressive and haunting" by The Sydney Morning Herald, and as a "knockout" by leading Australian poetry critic Martin Duwell.{{Cite web|url=http://www.australianpoetryreview.com.au/2008/12/sarah-holland-batt-aria-st-lucia-university-of-queensland-press-2008-62pp/|title=Sarah Holland-Batt: Aria|publisher=Australian Poetry Review|first=Martin|last=Duwell|author-link=Martin Duwell}} Writing in The Age, Robert Adamson described Aria as evidence that "Holland-Batt appears to be a major poet from the start".{{cite news |last=Adamson |first=Robert|author-link=Robert Adamson (poet)|date=13 December 2008 |url=https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/readings-of-comfort-and-joy-20081213-ge7knh.html |title=Readings of Comfort and Joy|newspaper=The Age}} In The Canberra Times, critic Peter Pierce likened Holland-Batt's "energetic approach to imagery" to that of Sylvia Plath, and praised her awareness of the "twin reserves of myth and metaphor".{{cite news |last=Pierce |first=Peter |date=30 August 2008 |title=High Praise Indeed for Poets' Power and Potency |newspaper=The Canberra Times|page=16}}

The Hazards, Holland-Batt's second volume, was praised as "a virtuoso performance" by The Sydney Morning Herald,{{Cite news|url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-hazards-review-sarah-hollandbatts-striking-second-collection-of-poetry-20151016-gkan3s.html|title=The Hazards review: Sarah Holland-Batt's striking second collection of poetry|first=Mike|last=Ladd|date=16 October 2015|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald}} and "an absolute gem of a collection overspilling with poems of compelling urgency and dazzling accomplishment" by The Australian.{{cite news |last=Savige |first=Jaya |date=19 December 2015 |title=Books of the Year|newspaper=The Weekend Australian|page=18}} Writing in Australian Book Review, Cassandra Atherton commented on Holland-Batt's "stark and sumptuous lyricism" and described The Hazards as "a thrilling psycho-geographical evocation of physical and internal landscapes".{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2015/october/2754-cassandra-atherton-reviews-the-hazards-by-sarah-holland-batt-conversations-i-ve-never-had-by-caitlin-maling-here-be-dragons-by-dennis-greene-and-the-guardians-by-lucy-dougan?tmpl=component&print=1|title=Cassandra Atherton reviews The Hazards by Sarah Holland-Batt, Conversations I've Never Had by Caitlin Maling, Here Be Dragons by Dennis Greene, and The Guardians by Lucy Dougan|first=Cassandra|last=Atherton|author-link=Cassandra Atherton|date=30 September 2015|magazine=Australian Book Review}} The judges of the Western Australian Premier's Book Prize observed that The Hazards is marked by "a kind of tough lyricism and an exacting use of language [that] makes for dramatic, assertive poetry" that imagines, "often through surprising metaphors, the 'real and imagined hazards' of living".{{Cite web|url=https://slwa.wa.gov.au/whats-on/awards-fellowships/wa-premiers-book-awards|title=WA Premier's Book Awards|website=State Library of Western Australia}} Geoff Page, writing in The Australian, likewise noted Holland-Batt's facility with metaphor: "The Hazards is dense with metaphorical energy ... in the service of substantial moral and psychological insights."{{cite news |last=Page |first=Geoff|author-link=Geoff Page|date=29 August 2015 |title=New Poetry|newspaper=The Australian|page=21}}

Holland-Batt's third volume, The Jaguar, centres on the decline and death of the poet's father from Parkinson's disease.{{cite news |last=Stafford |first=Andrew|date=14 May 2022 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/14/sarah-holland-batt-on-fighting-for-her-father-watching-someone-decline-can-be-beyond-language |title=Watching someone decline can be beyond language|newspaper=The Guardian}} Critics responding to The Jaguar have focussed on Holland-Batt's command of metaphor. Poet Judith Beveridge, writing in The Australian, observed that the poems in The Jaguar "are intensely moving not only for their tragic content but because of the way in which the subject matter is explored through dramatic and metaphorical ingenuity. Few poets can achieve this level of transformation, allowing their images to move with argumentative force."{{cite news |last=Beveridge |first=Judith|author-link=Judith Beveridge |date=28 April 2022 |url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/father-and-further-in-sarah-hollandbatts-the-jaguar/news-story/e49358837eff8e787b76afea88dfe762 |title=Father and Further in Sarah Holland-Batt's The Jaguar|newspaper=The Australian}} Geoff Page, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, states that "Holland-Batt's highly metaphorical style has been influential on numerous younger Australian poets, although few seem to equal her almost conversational ease in the medium," and observes that Holland-Batt deploys satire and plain diction alongside "denser, more metaphoric writing": "it's a mark of Holland-Batt's self-confidence that she can employ such a sardonic manner alongside other poems that are more orthodoxly poignant."{{cite news |last=Page |first=Geoff|author-link=Geoff Page |date=2 May 2022 |url=https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/an-affecting-meditation-on-mortality-20220502-p5ahw3.html |title=An Affecting Meditation on Mortality|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald}}

{{Incomplete list|date=December 2016}}{{bots|deny=Citation bot}}

Collections

• {{cite book |last=Holland-Batt|first=Sarah |title=Aria |location=St Lucia, Queensland |publisher=University of Queensland Press|date=2008|isbn=9780702236754|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last=Holland-Batt|first=Sarah |author-mask=1 |title=The Hazards |location=St Lucia, Queensland |publisher=University of Queensland Press |date=2015|isbn=978-0-7022-5359-1|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last=Holland-Batt|first=Sarah |author-mask=1 |title=The Jaguar |location=St Lucia, Queensland |publisher=University of Queensland Press |date=2022|isbn=9780702265501|ref=none}}

Anthologies (edited)

• {{cite book |editor-last=Holland-Batt|editor-first=Sarah|title=The Best Australian Poems 2016 |location=Melbourne |publisher=Black Inc.|date=2016|isbn=978-1-8639-5962-9|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Holland-Batt|editor-first=Sarah|editor-mask=1 |title=The Best Australian Poems 2017 |location=Melbourne |publisher=Black Inc. |date=2017|isbn=978-1-8639-5887-5|ref=none}}

Anthologies (contributor)

• The Best Australian Poems. (Melbourne: Black Inc., 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
• The Best Australian Poetry. Ed. David Brooks. (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 2008)
• The Puncher and Wattman Anthology of Australian Poetry. Ed. John Leonard. (Sydney: Puncher & Wattman, 2010)
• Being Human. Ed. Neil Astley. (U.K.: Bloodaxe Books, 2011)
• The Best Australian Stories. (Melbourne: Black Inc., 2011, 2012)
• Thirty Australian Poets. Ed. Felicity Plunkett. (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 2011)
• Young Poets: An Australian Anthology. Ed. John Leonard. (Melbourne: John Leonard Press, 2011)
• The Turnrow Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry. Ed. John Kinsella (Louisiana: Desperation Press/Turnrow Books, 2014).

List of poems

• "O California", The New Yorker (2015){{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/o-california|title=O California|magazine=The New Yorker|date=16 February 2015}}
• "Epithalamium", The New Yorker (2018){{cite magazine|last=Holland-Batt|first=Sarah|date=17 September 2018 |title=Epithalamium|magazine=The New Yorker|volume=94 |issue=28|page=52|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/17/epithalamium|access-date=2018-11-13}}
• "The Gift", The New Yorker (2021){{cite magazine|last=Holland-Batt|first=Sarah|author-mask=0|date=15–22 February 2021|title=The Gift|magazine=The New Yorker|volume=97|issue=1|page=67|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/02/15/the-gift|access-date=2024-12-18}}

• {{cite book |last=Holland-Batt|first=Sarah|author-mask=0|title=Fishing for Lightning : The Spark of Poetry |location=St Lucia, Queensland |publisher=University of Queensland Press |date=2021|ref=none}} Collection of 50 columns on poetry from The Australian
• "Art, Idleness and Leviathans: Alfred Evans' Scrimshaw" (2025), Sydney Powerhouse Museum

• "Rough seas" (2014), reviewing Favel Parrett's 2014 novel When the Night Comes{{cite journal |last=Holland-Batt|first=Sarah|date=September 2014 |title=Rough seas |journal=Australian Book Review|volume=364 |issue= |pages=12 |url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2014/122-september-2014-no-364/2104-rough-seas|access-date=2016-12-29|postscript=;}} reviewing {{cite book|last=Parrett|first=Favel|author-link=Favel Parrett|title=When the Night Comes|year=2014|publisher=Hachette|isbn=9780733627118}}

• 2007: Dorothy Hewett Fellowship for Poetry, winner for Aria
• 2007: Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, winner for Aria{{Cite web|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/46658648|title=Aria / Sarah Holland-Batt|last=|first=|date=|website=Trove|access-date=20 June 2024}}
• 2008: Anne Elder Award, winner for Aria
• 2008: Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, shortlisted for Aria
• 2008: Judith Wright Calanthe Award for Poetry, shortlisted for Aria{{Cite web|url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20091028060313/http://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/awards-and-recognition/literary-awards/shortlist.aspx|title=2009 Literary Awards shortlist – Department of the Premier and Cabinet|website=wayback.archive-it.org}}
• 2009: Judith Wright Prize, winner for Aria{{Cite web|url=https://www.cmtedd.act.gov.au/open_government/inform/act_government_media_releases|title=ACT Government Media Releases|date=24 June 2022|website=Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate}}{{failed verification|date=January 2025|reason=Nothing there about Holland-Batt}}
• 2009: The Age Book of the Year Poetry Prize, commended for Aria[http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/books/spoiled-for-choice/2009/08/12/1249756338115.html?page=4 "Spoiled for Choice: The Age Book of the Year Shortlist"], (Books, Entertainment), The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 August 2009
• 2010: Mary Gilmore Prize, shortlisted for Aria{{Cite web|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/books/read-the-numbers-were-buying-books/story-e6frg8nf-1225838815720|title=The Australian|access-date=30 April 2023}}
• 2016: Prime Minister's Literary Awards, winner for The Hazards[https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/nov/09/prime-ministers-literary-awards-2016-lisa-gorton-and-charlotte-wood-share-fiction-prize "Prime Minister's Literary awards 2016: Lisa Gorton and Charlotte Wood share fiction prize"], The Guardian, 9 November 2016
• 2016: Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, shortlisted for The Hazards
• 2016: Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature John Bray Memorial Award, shortlisted for The Hazards{{Cite web|url=https://sawriters.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2016-AFAL-Shortlist-MR-21-Dec-15.pdf|title=AFAL 2016|access-date=30 April 2023}}
• 2016: Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, shortlisted for The Hazards{{Cite web|url=http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/2016-kenneth-slessor-prize-poetry|title=NSW Premier's Prizes 2016|access-date=30 April 2023}}
• 2016: State Library of Queensland Poetry Collection – Judith Wright Calanthe Award, shortlisted for The Hazards{{Cite web|url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/about-us/media-releases/2016/2016-queensland-literary-awards-finalists-announced|title=State Library of Queensland|website=www.slq.qld.gov.au}}
• 2021: Judy Harris Writer-in-Residence fellowship, at the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney{{Cite web|last=|date=2021-06-28|title=Holland-Batt awarded $100,000 Judy Harris fellowship|url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2021/06/28/188719/holland-batt-awarded-100000-judy-harris-fellowship/|access-date=2021-06-28|website=Books+Publishing}}
• 2022: The Australian Book of the Year Award for The Jaguar
• 2023: Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, shortlisted for The Jaguar{{Cite web |date= 23 March 2023|title=Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry |url=https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/awards/kenneth-slessor-prize-poetry |access-date=2023-03-01 |website=State Library of NSW}}
• 2023: Griffin Poetry Prize, longlisted for The Jaguar {{Cite web |date= 15 March 2023|title=Griffin Poetry Prize|url=https://griffinpoetryprize.com/press/2023-longlist-announcement/}}
• 2023: Stella Prize, winner for The Jaguar{{Cite web |date=2023-04-28 |title=Holland-Batt wins 2023 Stella Prize for 'The Jaguar' |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2023/04/28/230206/holland-batt-wins-2023-stella-prize-for-the-jaguar/ |access-date=2023-04-27 |publisher=Books+Publishing}}
• 2023: Queensland Literary Awards, Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance winner for The Jaguar{{Cite web |date=2023-09-05 |title=Winners of the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards announced |url=https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/98623 |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=Media statements |publisher=Queensland Government}}
• 2023: Prime Minister's Literary Awards, Poetry Award shortlisted for The Jaguar{{Cite web |date=2023-10-26 |title=Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2023 shortlists announced |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2023/10/26/239949/prime-ministers-literary-awards-2023-shortlists-announced/ |access-date=2023-10-26 |publisher=Books+Publishing}}
• 2024: Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities{{Cite web |title=Fellow Profile: Sarah Holland-Batt |url=https://humanities.org.au/fellows/fellow-profile/?fellow_id=1276 |access-date=2024-11-27 |website=Australian Academy of the Humanities |language=en-AU}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{official|https://www.sarahhollandbatt.com/}}
• [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=240948 Two poems], Poetry Foundation
• [http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=A7D1 Biography and list of works], AustLit
• [http://www.pla.nsw.gov.au/documents/Kenneth_Slessor/HOLLAND-BATT_Sarah_Aria_Extract.pdf Extract of Aria], New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards

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