Ali Cobby Eckermann on winning the world's richest writing prize: 'It's taken time to adjust'

Poet lived in a caravan when she heard she had won $215,000. Ahead of this year’s Windham Campbell, she reflects on what that recognition can bring

Ali Cobby Eckermann had $47 in the bank and was living in a caravan when she found out, in March 2017, that she’d won the world’s richest literary prize, the Windham Campbell.

The prize is a coup for any writer. Administered by Yale University, judged anonymously and not open to submissions (it comes as a shock to all who are selected, not least one who found it in her junk mail), it was worth some A$215,000 a head when Eckermann learned she was one of eight winning writers.