Hunter Writers Centre
Each poem in this anthology is an anabranch in itself-a deviationfrom the mainstream; a moment where time would seem to stand still;a ’stay against the confusion of the world’ in Robert Frost’s memorablephrasing. There something anabranch-ish about our moment, as ourdeviation from what life was in 2020 reconnects further down stream in2022. Rivers moved from drought to fullness to flood. Our communitieswere pushed and pulled either side of the poverty line. We oscillatedbetween an open world and isolation.Aidan ColemanAlison WhittakerNewcastle Poetry Prize Judges 2022