The Winter Baby

The Winter Baby

Author	Jennifer Maiden
Language	English
Genre	Poetry collection
Publisher	Angus and Robertson
Publication date	1990
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Print
Pages	64 pp.
Awards	1991 Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry, winner; 1991 NSW Premier's Prize for Poetry, winner
ISBN	0207165831

The Winter Baby is a collection of poems by Australian poet Jennifer Maiden, published by Angus and Robertson in 1990. ^[1]

The collection contains 41 poems. ^[2]

The collection won the 1991 Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry, ^[3] and the 1991 NSW Premier's Prize for Poetry. ^[4]

Contents

• "Overproof"
• "Safe"
• "Sherlock Holmes"
• "For Schools"
• "The Nun as Director"
• "The Lady at the Party"
• "The Window as an Epigram"
• "Poem on an AIDS Commercial"
• "Respiration"
• "Off the Cuff"
• "The Membrane"
• "Gladiolus"
• "Need"
• "Contemporary References"
• "A Summer Emotion"
• "The Ballroom"
• Psalms sequence
  • "Psalm"
  • "Second Psalm"
  • "Third Psalm"
  • "Fourth Psalm"
  • "Fifth Psalm"
  • "Sixth Psalm"
• "The Midwife"
• "The Winter Baby"
• "This Purring Room"
• "The Rocker"
• "Doing Beautifully"
• "Vulnerability"
• "Nature Program"
• "Nursery Rhymes"
• "Edges"
• "Food"
• "In the Caesura"
• "The Process"
• "First Birthday"
• "Observation"
• "Memo"
• "Nose"
• "First Tea Set"
• "Christmas Poem, 1987"
• "'Bye'"

Critical reception

In the Australian Book Review Simon Patton noted Maiden's ability to give mundane subjects a degree of depth and complexity: "Most poems in this collection are extremely tentative in the sense that, for Maiden, poetry is not the polished expression of thought-out meanings but a process of discovery. She often begins with the mundane, breaking up familiar phrases and bringing in chance ideas, building up a magnetic momentum in which insights accumulate until something sparks and the poem flares with a significance that is both irresistibly powerful and beautifully complex." ^[5]

Notes

• Dedication: To my daughter Katharine Margot, my husband David, my mother and the memory of my father.

Awards

• 1991 Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry ^[3]
• 1991 NSW Premier's Prize for Poetry ^[4]

See also

• 1990 in Australian literature

References

1. "The Winter Baby by Jennifer Maiden". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 November 2025.
2. "Austlit — The Winter Baby by Jennifer Maiden". Austlit. Retrieved 18 November 2025.
3. "Case of crime paying dividends". The Age, 12 September 1991, p15. ProQuest   2521549387 . Retrieved 18 November 2025.
4. "Literary winner uncovers a purple patch in the mountains". Sydney Morning Herald, 10 September 1991, p3. ProQuest   2527555705 . Retrieved 18 November 2025.
5. ""Simon Patton reviews 'The Earthquake Lands' by Hal Colebatch, 'The Winter Baby' by Jennifer Maiden, and 'To the Ocean & Scheherazade' by Richard Allen"". Australian Book Review. Retrieved 18 November 2025.