$400 for your poem? Read on!

Peter Cowan Writers Centre announces the 2011 Julie Lewis Biennial Literary Award for Poetry is now open.

The Award for Poetry is open to all ages, is for an open theme of 50 lines maximum, and closes on the 31st August.

First Prize is $400, Second Prize is $200, Third Prize is $100, there are four Highly Commended Certificates and four Commended Certificates. The entry forms and guidelines are available on http://www.pcwc.org.au

Good luck!

Tom Collins Poetry Prize

The annual poetry prize of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (WA) is now on. Closing date is 15 December, so get to it! Entry form and details at http://www.fawwa.org.au/documents/TCPP2008Form.doc

New $5,000 poetry prize - the Blake Poetry Prize

From http://www.nswwriterscentre.org.au

The Blake Poetry Prize 2008

$5,000 prize for new national poetry competition on the theme of 'Bliss, blasphemy and belief'

The NSW Writers' Centre is delighted to announce that it is joining the Blake Society, Leichhardt Municipal Council and Wet Ink magazine in sponsoring a new national poetry prize to be known as the Blake Poetry Prize, which calls for entries on the theme of 'Bliss, blasphemy and belief'.

The Chairwoman of the NSW Writers¹ Centre, Máire Sheehan,said: 'The aim of the competition is to give Australian poets another opportunity to achieve national recognition and a financial reward for their efforts.'

This new competition was made possible by the generosity of Leichhardt Municipal Council, which has a strong commitment to supporting the arts, and especially writing through the NSW Writers' Centre.

"This grant of $5,000 continues our longstanding commitment to the NSW Writers' Centre and the development of arts through the written and spoken word," Mayor of Leichhardt Council Cr Alice Murphy said.

The NSW Writers' Centre is pleased to develop this partnership with the Blake Society which awards the annual Blake Prize for Religious Art. Blake Chairman, the Reverend Rod Pattenden, said: 'This exciting new initiative links visual art and literature, and offers new possibilities for poets to explore the nature of spirituality in the twenty-first century.'

Australia's newest literary magazine Wet Ink will join the partnership by providing the judges for the competition and publishing the winner and commended entries in Wet Ink, which is distributed nationally and internationally. Co-managing Editor of Wet Ink, Dominique Wilson, said: 'We are very excited to be part of this important new prize. Wet Ink is dedicated to promoting new writers, and this prize enables us to further support emerging poets through recognising their talents and exposing their work to a broad audience, both within Australia and overseas.'

Download an entry form and conditions at the NSW Writers Centre link above.

Entries close Friday 27 June 2008
Entry fee: $15

PressPress Chapbook Award 2008

Caption: Chris Mansell, publisher, trying to sell a camel driver a chapbook at Sakara

The PressPress Chapbook Award is for an unpublished chapbook length manuscript of poems. The winning manuscript will receive $300 and chapbook publication with PressPress. The Award will be announced in July 2008 on the site.

Conditions of entry

1. The manuscript should be an original poetry of chapbook length (ie 20 to 40 pages). It must be unpublished and not on offer to another publisher in Australia or elsewhere (except that individual poems can be already taken or on offer to journals, sites or anthologies where you keep the copyright).

2. The Award will be made to the best overall chapbook received. PressPress reserves the right not to make an award if the standard of submitted entries is insufficient or to split an Award.

3. The Award will be judged by the PressPress Award panel: the decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered.

4. The Award, $300 (AUD) and publication of the manuscript as a PressPress chapbook, will be announced on the PressPress site in July 2008. The final content of the winning chapbook will be negotiated with PressPress editors.

5. The author's name and address must appear on the entry form but not on the manuscript.

6. A stamped self-addressed envelope (SSAE) big enough to return the manuscript OR a small envelope for notification of results (in this case the original ms will be recycled and the disk destroyed) must be included if you want your entry returned. Entries from outside Australia must be accompanied by an International Reply Paid Postage Coupon.

7. Two copies of the entry should be provided: a hardcopy typed double or one and a half spacing on single-sided A4 with no borders or illustrations or fancy fonts; and, a digital copy on disk as a pdf or in Word (Mac or PC) or Appleworks.

8. Entries must be received by 30 May 2008.

9. Attach an entry form and a cheque or money order (or pay by credit card via PayPal) for the administration fee of $15 (AUD) per entry.

10. Send your entry to: PressPress Chapbook Award 2008 PressPress PO Box 94 Berry NSW 2535 Australia

http://www.presspress.com.au/

The New Zealand Poetry Society International Competition

The New Zealand Poetry Society 2007
International Competition.

Closes 30th May 2007

The New Zealand Poetry Society's annual International Verse and Haiku Competition, with adult and junior sections, is currently under way. The Open Junior and Haiku Junior sections are open to students who are 17 years of age or under on 30th May 2007. Please visit www.poetrysociety.org.nz for full competition details and to download the entry forms. Last year's competition results and judges' reports are also on the website.

There are cash prizes, and selected entries will appear in the New Zealand Poetry Society's annual anthology later in the year.

This year's judges are:
Open: James Norcliffe
Open Junior: Bernard Gadd
Haiku: Ernest Berry
Haiku Junior: Patricia Prime

The judges' details are available on www.poetrysociety.org.nz and entry forms are available for downloading.
Alternatively, for a hard copy, send a self-addressed envelope and IRC to:
The Competition Secretary,
PO Box 5283,
Lambton Quay,
Wellington, New Zealand

For further information, please email: competition@poetrysociety.org.nz