There are currently intermittent issues with the display of images on the old catalogue and Library website. We are working to resolve the issue and apologise for any inconvenience. Please search the new catalogue.
The Jaguar
2023 - Shortlisted

Judges' Comments
The Jaguar is a tremendous collection of poems, deeply compelling in their subject matter and exemplary in their attention to language and craft. Holland-Batt displays her mastery of the form by applying immense pressure on the poetic line, often seemingly without effort, yet continually producing surprising, dazzling results. Each poem emerges as a highly polished, finely faceted gem; each jewelled word is perfectly set in place with the precision of a master craftsman.
This is muscular, tenacious writing of great intensity that bears unflinching witness to the decline and death of a loved one, that embraces the necessary suffering that is part of loving and of being human. The Jaguar is poetry of the highest order — poetry that changes us in the reading of it, that reminds us of the inevitable: ‘Soon, I tell you, everything / will be washed by rain’.