Yunggorendi academic adviser and lecturer Natalie Harkin’s poetry collection Dirty Words was one of six works shortlisted in the inaugural Indigenous Writer’s Prize.

The biennial $30,000 prize is part of the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards.

In their comments, the judges commended the collection’s 26 poems as “witty and acerbic”,  and said that the poet has “crafted a collection dense with intelligence, haunted with reverence for Elders and culture, and altogether liberating”.

Copies of the book are available from the publisher, Cordite Books.