Entries to the Newcastle Poetry Prize are NOW OPEN! You can enter either online or by post.
Go to the Enter page to submit your entry. Check the Conditions page before entering.
Entries close 5pm AESTm Friday June 7, 2013.
Entries will open on Thursday 21 March, 2013, to coincide with World Poetry Day.
To enter, fill in the online entry form which will appear on this website on March 21. If you prefer to print an entry form and mail it to us, we’ll make one available for download.
Entries will close on Friday, 7 June, 2013.
If you need some inspiration, allow us to share some of the work of past prize winners. Today we’re featuring a vivid excerpt from Mark O’Flynn‘s poem Hill End Sonnets, which was Highly Commended in the 2012 Prize and available for download or as a hardcopy. Enjoy.
The Newcastle Poetry Prize team is looking forward to 2013. Hunter Writers’ Centre opened its doors a month ago and we’ve been busy coordinating all aspects of the NPP.
We’ve altered the website a little so you can contact us by replying to the updates we post. Soon you’ll also be able to sign up for short email updates which we’ll post each week. Or join Hunter Writers’ Centre’s Facebook page to keep up with what’s going on. However you stay in touch, we look forward to being more involved with our community of poets!
Here we’ll keep you posted on the entry opening date, prize night date and all the other important info for 2013 as it comes to hand.
In the meantime, keep writing.
The 2012 NPP anthology, Coastline, was launched at the award night last October. The title was derived from David Musgrave’s winning poem of the same name.
Each year the NPP attracts hundreds of entries from distinguished and emerging poets. The 2012 collection showcases the twenty-three poems that were shortlisted by the judges. It features David Musgrave, Mark O’Flynn, Philip Radmall, John Bennett, Doris Brett, Michelle Cahill, Alexander D’Aloia, B.R. Dionysius, Judy Durrant, Luke Fischer, John Jenkins, Andy Kissane, Tric O’Heare, Peter Lach-Newinsky, Anthony Lawrence, David Lumsden, Gita Mammen, Bob Morrow, Nathan Shepherdson, John Watson and Jakob Ziguras.
You can support the running of the Newcastle Poetry Prize (as well as read some of the country’s most stunning poetry) by purchasing a hardcopy in the Hunter Writers’ Centre’s online shop. You can also purchase an eBook for your Amazon Kindle (for the first time ever) on this page here.
The words of our 2012 judges, Jennifer Harrison and Kim Cheng Boey, sum it up:
“It proves that there is poetry in money after all, that a major prize like the Newcastle Poetry Prize can call in being poems that seem to say something that has never been said before, or say something that we all know in such new and memorable ways that it reads like a new knowledge, a new sense of future.”
One year after its 30th anniversary milestone, the Newcastle Poetry Prize had the opportunity of a fresh start in 2012. During this time the Hunter Writers’ Centre made efforts to bestow on the enduring award some contemporary enhancements: an online entry system, the addition of an eBook format for the anthology and more digitised processes. These initiatives, along with the usual duties to be done, were achieved by many people and we can only hope our warmest gratitude goes close to compensating their efforts.
Thank you to the Prize’s major sponsor, the University of Newcastle, in particular Kevin McConkey for his valued assistance and advice. Thanks also goes to Newcastle City Council for its in-kind venue support, in particular Christopher Tola and Heidi Routley; judges Jennifer Harrison and Kim Cheng Boey, for dedicating much time and skill to the adjudication process; previous Hunter Writers’ Centre Director Katharine Gillett for her guidance; the 2011 Local Prize winner Trisha Pender who helped us publicise the Prize in the local community; the staff and board of HWC, especially HWC Director Karen Crofts, Admin Assistant Vesna McMaster, bookkeeper Irena Daley and devoted volunteer Hollie Pich; and University of Newcastle PR student Ashleigh Milne who interned with us. To our creatives and techs: graphic designer and web administrator Heath Killen; our new web administrator Adrian Garner; and graphic designer and typesetter Tom McMahon – thank you for being on hand around the clock. Further thanks goes to Steve Hodges at Griffin Digital; The Lockup’s Acting Administrator, Emily Roberts; Libby Rodgers-McPhee and the daughters of Harri Jones, Rhiannon, Sian and Ruth; and HWC member Lucy Woollard who helped process entries when help was most needed.
Finally, thank you to all the poets who entered in 2012, without whom this beloved Prize would not run.
We look forward to doing it all again in 2013.
Congratulations to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners of the 2012 Newcastle Poetry Prize:
1st: David Musgrave for his poem ‘Coastline’
2nd: Mark O’Flynn for his poem ‘Hill End Sonnets’
3rd: Philip Radmall for his poem ‘Grounding’
The award ceremony was held at Newcastle City Hall on Friday, October 26, 2012. We had several shortlisted poets fly from interstate to attend which was a wonderful surprise. The University of Newcastle’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Caroline McMillen, presented the awards. Thank you to both the University of Newcastle and Newcastle City Council for their generous financial support of this award.
