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Peter Rose has won the Judith Wright Calanthe Poetry Award in the 2012 Queensland Literary Awards for his poetry collection Crimson Crop .

Crimson Crop , Rose's fifth collection of poetry, adds to an existing oeuvre of work that includes the bestselling memoir Rose Boys (2001), and builds upon his esteemed reputation as a poet, novelist and editor of Australian Book Review .

These awards are particularly significant for the Australian literary community following the decision earlier this year by Queensland Premier Campbell Newman to discontinue the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards.

As a response to this decision, the Queensland Literary Awards (QLA) were established by a small group of people from the Queensland literary and arts community.

As well as donations from Queensland businesses, the organisers secured $20,000 from the Copyright Agency Limited Cultural Fund, and raised more than $20,000 in a crowd-funding campaign to administer and deliver the awards.

Chair of the QLA organising committee Stuart Glover said that the awards committee doesn't know what will happen in 2013, but hopes to continue the awards with community support.

"We would welcome the return of government support, as government is one of many stakeholders in the state's literary life, but regardless, the community has spoken about the importance of writing and literature."

For more information on the Queensland Literary Awards, visit the website: https://www.queenslandliteraryawards.com/ .

Media references

Kiri Falls (UWA Publishing)  (+61 8) 6488 6806 / (+61 4) 28 136 847

Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8) 6488 3229 / (+61 4) 00 700 783