2010:

Open Section: Jill Jones & Anthony Lawrence.

New Media Section: by Rob Walker

Jill Jones

Jill Jones’ won the Kenneth Slessor Poetry prize for Screens Jets Heaven and the Mary Gilmore Award for The Mask and the Jagged Star. She has also been shortlisted for a number of awards. Her most recent book is Dark Bright Doors. She is also co-editor, with Michael Farrell, of Out of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets. Her work appears in a number of recent anthologies, including The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature and The Best Australian Poems 2009. She lives in Adelaide.

2009:

Open Section: Philip Salom, VIC (head judge) and Jill Jones, SA.

New Media: Jason Nelson, QLD.

“The Prize has always been judged by senior practitioners of national standing, and is known to be open to quality work irrespective of style or school. It remains Australia’s most widely recognised and deeply respected poetry award.”

Rob Riel, Picaro Press

Judges are selected by the Newcastle Poetry Prize Committee. Three Open Section judges are appointed each year, with a Head Judge undertaking the revision of all poems submitted to arrive at a reduced selection which is then reviewed by the other two judges. A further judge is appointed to judge the new media poems.

To provide continuity in the judging process one of the open section judges ‘carries over’ from one year to the next. A judge also is conventionally drawn from Newcastle and its environs, and care is taken to draw the remaining judges from around Australia, emphasizing the national focus and reputation of the Prize.

In 2007 the judges were Martin Harrison (Head and local judge), Jan Owen (SA) and John Jenkins (VIC). In 2008 Jan Owen will carried over and was Head Judge, and is joined by Philip Salom (VIC) and Richard Tipping as the local judge. The New Media judge in 2008 was Jayne Fenton Keane (QLD). 2009 Judges will be announced shortly.

Great consideration is given to the selection of judges to ensure a represention a range of styles and critical standpoints, so that the Prize is not seen to favour any particular poetry clique. Changing the judges each year also helps to keep the prize fresh and interesting. For these reasons, many poets will enter year in year out, and purchase the anthology irrespective of whether they are in it or not, because they know that the process is reliable and the results outstanding.

At no stage during the judging process are judges aware of the identity of the poets. Poems are identified by a number only, and names are not revealed to the judges until all winning numbers have been forwarded to the Newcastle Poetry Prize Coordinator, and the anthology list submitted.