Meet The Local Winner Of International Writing Competition, The Highly Coveted Manchester Poetry Prize 2022  

By Brad Kelly

Shortlisted for the Manchester Poetry Prize, Robertson resident Peter Ramm headed to the UK with expectations low – so much so he hadn’t prepared any sort of speech in the event that he could perhaps win this highly coveted international writing award. 

Lucky for him, he managed to wing his acceptance speech on the night when he was named as the winner of the 2022 Manchester Poetry Prize. 

Here’s our chat with Peter and his thoughts on finding success, rainforest walks around Robertson, bringing up his boys and the legacy of fatherhood. 

Image Credit :: Michelle West

1 :: Peter, you’re fresh off the plane from the UK after scooping a major international poetry prize. How are you feeling?

Yes, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind trip. I entered the Manchester Poetry Prize for unpublished poets in January and only found out I’d been shortlisted in April. 

The shortlist was the top six entrants out of about 1500 entries or 4000 poems submitted to the competition from across the world. 

I went thinking there was no chance of winning, and I didn’t have a speech prepared, the typical thing.

I couldn’t believe it when they read my name out.

2 :: Tell us a bit about the winning entries.

The entry was called Landfall. 

It’s a collection of three poems written over the course of a couple of years.

The oldest poem I wrote was off the back of the Australian bushfires in an effort to examine the neglect of the environment that had been endemic in our country. 

So, it was probably the most political piece that I’d written.

The poem I read on the night is called The Rainforest In Winter.

It was written during COVID lockdowns and about getting out of the house with the boys for a walk. 

The poem explores a father’s perspective of the cares and worries of the world, in contrast to the boisterousness of youth and the hope and the energy of young boys and the sense of renewal and refreshment that can come with being in nature and taking the boys for a walk.

3 :: And that poem is set in your home town of Robertson. 

That’s right – it’s set in the little protected remnant patch of rainforest behind the railway tracks in Robertson. 

And for me, like for Finn, my eldest, it’s been a place we’ve enjoyed walking to and exploring together.

We both love that the trees, the vines, and the birds, and so on are very different to the farming landscape of the area.

4 :: You also weaved your love of history into the rainforest, those experiences with your boys and greater questions about the land and its treatment. 

Yes, the rainforest and the poem itself became symbolic of the remnant of the time before Europeans moved in and the timber getters cut the forest down for the Cedar trees, and the pastoralist cleared the land for grazing. 

So, the rainforest becomes, in the poem, a little bit symbolic of at least the treatment of the land, but also the sense that in itself it’s being rejuvenated and refreshed similar to the human spirit and the human mind when we step away from those cares. 

It’s also symbolic of what we’re leaving for our children. 

Image Credit :: Esther Ramm

5 :: How did you develop a love of poetry? 

I’ve always enjoyed language. My mother read to me a lot when I was a kid. I read all through school and had some great English teachers. I always enjoyed literature and learning. 

My father and mother are both schoolteachers, so they imparted an enjoyment of study and of language and of pursuing words. 

And I enjoyed English. I studied English Literature at university, then became an English teacher.

6 :: But you’re a relative newcomer to poetry.

I am. 

I wasn’t writing creatively in those early years at university or teaching, and I entered into a poetry competition about six or seven years ago. 

It was a school-based competition and there was a teacher category and so I thought, ‘hey, why not?’.

I always enjoyed writing with the students and so thought I’d experiment with the teacher’s competition and ended up shortlisting in the first year.

The following year I won it and so stuck at it.

I put energy into writing and took creative writing courses at Sydney Uni and undertook mentoring [with Eileen Chong and Mark Tredinnick] and bought lots of poetry books and books on how to write poetry.

And it went from there.

Image Credit :: Esther Ramm

7 ::  How has the Highlands inspired your writing?

I moved from Sydney to Bowral when I was 11. Everyone’s first memory of the Highlands is the first winter because it’s a lot colder than the coast! 

The Highlands was very formative in my coming of age as a teenager – Bradman Oval, the autumn leaves and then going to a school which had paddocks as its fields – I just fell in love with the country and decided to stay here after I went through high school.

I love the cold and the landscape of the Highlands.

A lot of my writing is also on the coast. I work in the Illawarra, and I’ve holidayed down at Jervis Bay since my birth, so my writing often transverses the coast and the Highlands.

Robertson obviously features in a number of my poems because I live here. Often in the cold, the turning of the seasons and the special locations in the Highlands.

As somebody who enjoys nature and birds and getting outdoors, it’s hard not to write about those places. I’ve enjoyed learning about them as I’ve written them.

8 :: Any advice for aspiring poets?

You’ll get knocked back a lot but keep writing. 

It’s not always a quick thing learning the craft. Many writers take a lifetime to hone their craft, to build the disciplines, to build the knowledge to write well.

So, persist! It will be worth it.

9 :: And you’ve got your first published book coming out in June called Waterlines. 

Waterlines is my debut poetry collection. The poems have been collecting from the last five years of writing.

It’s titled after my shortlisted poem Waterlines to a King Fisher, which was shortlisted in the Blake Poetry Prize in 2020, and has been published by Vagabond Press. 

The themes are around fatherhood and the places on the coast and Highlands. Some of those themes have to do with my own father and my own grandfather who passed away when I was 12. 

So, there’s a sense in the book of an absence of him and my early poems were exploring emotions around that.

And also, my return with my own children to the places I spent time with my father and grandfather on the coast and fishing villages down south and how far this might pass that legacy on.

Amazing – thanks Peter! We love that the Highlands is a hot pot of talented creatives! 

If you would like to find out more about Peter’s work or to purchase his recently published book of poetry, Waterlines, head here to his website and support a local writer.

Image Credit :: Carol Unwin