After being selected as one of nine finalists in a major annual national poetry competition, a Charles Sturt University (CSU) lecturer has been announced in the top three.Dr Lachlan Brown (pictured), senior lecturer in English literature in the CSU School of Humanities and Social Sciences in Wagga Wagga, gained the third prize in the Overland 2016 Judith Wright Poetry Prize for his poem, 'Self-division: little song selections'.Dr Brown said, "Judith Wright was such an influential Australian poet, and I am profoundly moved every time I teach her poetry in my Australian literature classes at Charles Sturt University. To have placed third in the Overland prize that bears her name is an absolute honour."The Overland prize also values experimentation, the pushing of poetic limits. I'm grateful that these prizes exist to encourage emerging poets who are trying new ways of writing."The third prize is valued at $1 000."Studying contemporary literature and poetry is important because it challenges us to think differently about the world around us," Dr Brown said."Good poetry offers us language at its most potent, as it jags across the surfaces of everyday experience. I'm so often impressed by the originality and brilliance of the students in my poetry classes here at the University."Dr Brown has won or placed in numerous prestigious poetry prizes and has had his poems published in many journals. This includes winning the Sydney University Henry Lawson poetry prize, the Macquarie Fields poetry prize, and the Hermes best poem award. He has also been shortlisted for the Blake Poetry Prize, as well as being shortlisted and commended in the 2014 Newcastle Poetry Prize.His poems have appeared in journals including Cordite, Mascara, Heat, Rabbit, Southerly, and Etchings. His first volume of poetry, Limited Cities, was published by Giramondo in 2012 and was highly commended for the Dame Mary Gilmore Award.Dr Brown's second book of poetry, The Surface of Your Lunar Inheritance, explores his Chinese-Australian heritage and is due to be published by Giramondo in 2017.A summary of the nine finalists in the 2016 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize can be found here.