The Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal

Philip Hodgins

Philip Hodgins was born in Shepparton, Victoria, on 28 January 1959 and grew up on his parents' dairy farm nearby. In November 1983 he was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia, and his illness became a subject of much of his later work. He wrote with exceptional plainness about both farm life and dying.

His first collection, Blood and Bone, was published by Angus and Robertson in 1986 and won the Kenneth Slessor Prize at the 1987 NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Down the Lake with Half a Chook followed in 1988, Animal Warmth in 1990 and The End of the Season in 1993. His poems appeared in The New Yorker. Hodgins died in Maryborough, Victoria, on 18 August 1995, aged 36. His papers are held at UNSW Canberra.

The medal

Hodgins was one of the group whose readings in a Mildura restaurant cellar led to the writers festival. The medal, established in his memory, was presented at the festival to a writer with a consistently outstanding body of work. The inaugural medal, in 1997, went to Bruce Dawe.

The presentation became a set piece of the festival, and old links to this address refer to a medal dinner as part of the program. Reports from 2017 describe a medal designed by the Mildura artist Jim Curry, presented together with a cheque for $3,000.

Reported recipients

We have not found a complete verified list. These are the recipients we could confirm from book-trade reporting and festival coverage. Other accounts also name Helen Garner, David Malouf, Gail Jones and Sonya Hartnett as past recipients.

• 1997: Bruce Dawe
• 2013: Frank Moorhouse
• 2014: Lisa Gorton
• 2015: Anthony Lawrence
• 2017: Peter Boyle