Entries are now open for Australian Catholic University’s annual Prize for Poetry, one of the nation’s richest awards for a single poem.
Sponsored by ACU’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Catholic Mission), this year’s competition invites established and emerging poets to submit new and unpublished poetry on the theme of Witness.
The 2026 competition takes inspiration from the powerful words of Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, engraved at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness”.
The ACU Prize for Poetry has supported Australian-based poets, writers and artists since 2013.
Local and national poets have competed alongside internationally recognised names such as Judith Beveridge, Mark Tredinnick, Stephen Edgar, Geoff Page, and Anthony Lawrence.
Blind-judged by Emeritus Professor Margot Hillel and Professor Robert H F Carver, the ACU Prize for Poetry offers a total purse of over $20,000, as well as the chance for short-listed poems to be published in the competition anthology.
Professor Hillel said the concept of witness was not new to the history of poetry, and in many ways, defined poetry.
“As the oldest literary form, predating widespread literacy, poetry has been used to preserve and pass on history and designate meaning to the world,” she said.
“The concept of ‘witness’ – of giving testimony to the knowledge and observations of experiences, phenomena and truth – is precisely what poets do.
“We look forward to discovering the many different ways this year’s entrants have responded to this year’s theme of ‘witness’.”
As Australia awaits the appointment of the first national Poet Laureate in October, Professor Carver said it was possible that a winner of the ACU Prize for Poetry takes the position.
“Over the past 13 years, thousands of Australian poets have embraced the opportunity to create new works for the ACU Prize for Poetry, adding to the nation’s long and vibrant poetic tradition,” Professor Carver said. “There may even be a Poet Laureate among the submissions.”
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Catholic Mission), Fr Gerald Gleeson, said ACU was proud to continue the Catholic Church’s longstanding tradition as patron of the arts.
Entries for the ACU Prize for Poetry close on July 1. Winners will be announced at the official awards ceremony on November 4.
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