Evelyn Araluen facts for kids

Evelyn Araluen is an Australian writer. She creates poems and also works as a literary editor. She won a big award called the Stella Prize in 2022 for her first book, Dropbear.

Evelyn's Early Life

Evelyn Araluen is an Aboriginal Australian. She belongs to the Bundjalung people. She was born on the land of the Dharug people.

Her Writing Journey

Evelyn's poems have appeared in many important magazines. Some of these include The Best Australian Poems 2016 and Overland. She also wrote a chapter for a book called Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia. Her chapter was titled "Finding Ways Home".

In 2019, Evelyn became a co-editor for Overland magazine. This is a well-known Australian literary journal. She also won an award in 2021. It was the first Professional Development Award at the Melbourne Prize.

Her first book of poems, Dropbear, came out in March 2021. The University of Queensland Press published it.

Awards and Recognition

Evelyn has won many awards for her writing.

• In 2016, she was a runner-up for the Nakata Brophy Prize. This was for her poem "Learning Bundjalung on Tharawal".
• The next year, in 2017, she won the same prize. This time it was for her short story "Muyum: a transgression".
• Also in 2017, she won first and third prizes. These were for the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize. Her winning poems were "Guarded by birds" and "Dropbear poetics".

In 2018, Evelyn received a special grant. It was from the Wheeler Centre. This grant gave her 12 months of mentoring. She learned from the famous writer Tony Birch. She also had a writing retreat at Varuna, The Writers' House.

Her book Dropbear won the 2022 Stella Prize. It was also highly praised for the 2021 Anne Elder Award. Dropbear was also chosen as a finalist for several other awards. These included the 2021 Judith Wright Calanthe Award and the 2022 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing. It was also a finalist for the 2022 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry.