Port Kembla poet David Stavanger (Ghostboy) wins $25k from Victorian Premier's Literary Awards

The Port Kembla artist has been working as a spoken word performer (aka Ghostboy), editor and writer; and just picked up the $25,000 Prize for Poetry in the prestigious 2021 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for his latest work.

"Case Notes is a visceral and profound meditation on masculinity, mental illness, fatherhood, family and suburban life," wrote the judges.

"This deeply vulnerable collection expertly balances humour and wit alongside moments of grief, loneliness, anxiety and sadness."

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The eclectic mix of verse and fiction documents the lived and living mental health experience, with plenty of "playful, dark humour" ripe for a midnight laugh, the author said.

"People think poetry and they think 'academic, boring inaccessible, what's it got to do with me?' but I think right now Australian poetry is in the best place it's ever been," he said.

The idea for the book was sparked by the positive response to his poem "Electric Journal", which narrated his experience receiving ECT (electroconvulsive therapy).

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While the collection of verse does deal with sometimes intense subject material, Stavanger said, there's plenty of lighter tales around rescue dogs and fatherhood.

"I don't use poetry as therapy," he said.

"I use it to document and remind myself, and as a tool to interrogate my experience and also the systems - in a way capitalism's part of the mental health response in this country - and interrogate the euphemisms used to dismiss the impact of these treatments.

"Therapy for me is the dog beach and getting enough sleep."

Stavanger used to work in allied health but had always loved writing, and eventually began performing with spoken word.

Performance has been an "outlet" for what was happening in his "interior world", but the published writer has made quite the success of the artform.

He's currently a senior project manager at Red Room Poetry in Sydney, has co-directed various literary festivals, and has been the recipient to several awards.

"I've always been big on people finding their own paths with their arts and very much their own voice, and then you'll find a way to shape that on a page. I'm pretty much into self determination as a writer and an artist."

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