The longlist for the 2012 ALS Gold Medal has been announced.
In announcing the award the judges said they wanted 'to make special mention of the strength and quality of the poetry entries'.
The longlisted titles for the award, presented ‘for a work of outstanding literary merit published in 2011', are:
What the Family Needed (Steven Amsterdam, Sleepers)
People of Earth (Christopher Edwards, Vagabond Press)
The Wing Collection: New & Selected poems (Diane Fahey, Puncher & Wattman)
All That I Am (Anna Funder, Hamish Hamilton)
Five Bells (Gail Jones, Vintage)
Foal's Bread (Gillian Mears, A&U)Autumn Laing (Alex Miller, A&U)
Past the Shallows (Favel Parrett, Hachette)
The Street Sweeper (Elliot Perlman, Vintage)
Gig Ryan: New and Selected Poems (Gig Ryan, Giramondo)
Surface to Air (Jaya Savige, UQP).
The longlisted titles were chosen from 106 entries. A shortlist will be published in April and the winner will be announced at the opening of the annual ASAL Conference on 4 July at the University of Wellington, New Zealand.