The Newcastle Poetry Prize is an annual Australian award for

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

. It was established in

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

as the Mattara Poetry Prize. The Prize began from humble beginnings in September 1980, when Peter Goldman stood in the middle of Civic Park during the Mattara Festival and handed out an anthology of poetry to passers-by. The A4 photocopied collection featured poems from local Hunter writers, with contributors ranging in age from six to eighty-one. This anthology prompted two lecturers at the University of Newcastle, Christopher Pollnitz and Paul Kavanagh, to seek funding for a poetry competition which paved the way for the first official Mattara Poetry Prize in 1981. This prize gone on to become one of the richest and most prestigious poetry competitions in the country, and is now known as the Newcastle Poetry Prize. Today the Prize is one of the major events of the literary calendar in Australia, bringing entries from across the nation. More recently the Newcastle Poetry Prize has included a New Media prize, creating a forum for the new technology poets in the country. Initially sponsored by the Hunter Water Board,

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

City Council has provided funding via its Community Assistance Program since 1995, and the University of Newcastle has partnered with Council since 2004 to provide additional sponsorship. In 2011, the Prize celebrated its 30th anniversary and marked the milestone with readings by distinguished previous winners including Les Murray, Anthony Lawrence, Mark Tredinnick, Diane Fahey, Philip Salom, Duncan Hose, Patricia Sykes, Peter Kirkpatrick and Brooke Emery. A special anniversary anthology, Completely Surrounded, was published by Puncher & Wattman.

Winners

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Chloe Wilson
(Soft Serve) *

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Ross Gillett
(Buying Online) *

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Lucy Williams
(The Crows in Town) *

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

: John Watson (The Dangar Island Garbage Boat) *

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

: Anthony Lawrence (Connective Tissue) *

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

Jennifer Compton Jennifer Compton (born 1949) is a New Zealand-born Australian poet and playwright. Biography She was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1949 and attended Wellington East Girls' College. In the 1970s she emigrated to Sydney, Australia with her ...

(Now You Shall Know) *

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

David Musgrave David Musgrave (born 1965) is an Australian poet, novelist, publisher and critic. He is the founder of and publisher at Puncher & Wattmann, an independent press which publishes Australian poetry and literary fiction. He is also Deputy Chair o ...

(Coastline) *

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Mark Tredinnick Mark Tredinnick (born 1962) is an Australian poet, essayist and teacher. Winner of the Montreal International Poetry Prize in 2011 and the Cardiff International Poetry Competition in 2012. He is the author of thirteen books, including four vo ...

(The Wombat Vedas) *

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

: Duncan Hose (An Allegory of Edward Trouble) *

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

: Patricia Sykes (Cassandra Vegas) *

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

(The Baby Boomers) *

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

(Eclogues) *

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

: Nathan Shepherdson (Eve 1528) *

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

: Emma Jones (Zoos for the Dead) *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Peter Kirkpatrick Peter Crichton Kirkpatrick (24 August 1916 – 6 October 1995) was a British rower. He competed in the men's coxless four event at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He also represented England and won a bronze medal in the eights at the 1950 Briti ...

(Bucolic Plague or This Eco-Lodge My Prison) *

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

: Emma Jones (Fugue, or a Possible Poem) John Watson (A Jetty Completely Surrounded) Jo Gardiner (Song to the Moon)

Judy Johnson William Julius "Judy" Johnson (October 26, 1899 – June 15, 1989) was an American professional third baseman and manager whose career in Negro league baseball spanned 17 seasons, from 1921 to 1937. Slight of build, Johnson never developed as ...

(Three Faces of Shiva) *

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Philip Salom Philip Salom (born 8 August 1950) is an Australian poet and novelist, whose poetry books have drawn widespread acclaim. His 14 collections of poetry and four novels are noted for their originality and expansiveness and surprising differences fro ...

(Preservation: Things in Glass) *

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

Brook Emery A Stream#Types, brook is a small river or natural stream of fresh water. It may also refer to: Computing *Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C *Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler *BrookGPU, a framework for GPGP ...

(Approaching the Edge) *

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

: Anthony Lawrence (Skinned By Light & Thanatos) *

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

(Elegy for my Father) Roland Leach (East Timor) David Brooks (Back After Eight Months Away) *

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

: Roland Leach (drowning Ophelia: the madness poems) *

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

Dorothy Hewett Dorothy Coade Hewett (21 May 1923 – 25 August 2002) was an Australian playwright, poet and author, and a romantic feminist icon. In writing and in her life, Hewett was an experimenter. As her circumstances and beliefs changed, she progressed ...

(Upside Down Sonnets) *

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

: John Bennett (Blackwattle) *

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

: Kristopher Saknussemm (Group of eight poems) *

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

: Dane Thwaites (Imitations of Han Shan) Tracy Ryan (Streams in the Desert) *

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

Lily Brett Lily Brett (born Lilijahne Brajtsztajn 5 September 1946, Feldafing displaced persons camp, Bavaria, Germany) is an Australian novelist, essayist and poet. She lived in North Carlton and then Elwood/Caulfield (suburbs of Melbourne) from 1948 to ...

(Poland) *

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

: Diane Fahey (Poem of Thanksgiving) *

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

John A. Scott John Alan Scott (who has published under the names John A. Scott and John Scott) (born 23 April 1948) is an English-Australian poet, novelist and academic. Biography Scott was born in Littlehampton

(St. Clair) *

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

: Craig Powell (Five Pieces For a Homecoming) *

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

Peter Kocan Peter Raymond Kocan (born Peter Raymond Douglas, 4 May 1947) attempted to assassinate Opposition Leader Arthur Calwell on 21 June 1966. He fired a shot at point-blank range through a car window, but Calwell escaped with only minor facial injuries ...

(From the Private Poems of Governor Caulfield) *

Kevin Hart Kevin Darnell Hart (born July 6, 1979) is an American comedian and actor. Originally known as a stand-up comedian, he has since starred in Hollywood films and on TV. He has also released several well-received comedy albums. After winning se ...

('The Storm' and others) and Les Murray ('Machine Portraits with Pendant Spaceman')

New Media Winners

009 009 may refer to: * OO9, gauge model railways * O09, FAA identifier for Round Valley Airport * 0O9, FAA identifier for Ward Field, see List of airports in California * British secret agent 009, see 00 Agent * BA 009, see British Airways Flight 9 * ...

ob Walker and Ben Walker(Bibliophobia) *

008 008, OO8, O08, or 0O8 may refer to: * The Streetwear Brand @008us , inspired by Ian Fleming & Virgil Abloh *"030", the fictional 030 Agent of MI6 * '' 038: Operation Exterminate'', a 1965 Italian action film * '' Explosivo 030'' a 1940 Argentine c ...

ason Nelson(Wittenoom) joint winner with aul White(Don't read too much into it) *

007 The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

ob Walker and Matt Walker(Moon Anti-Poem) * 006 hilip Norton(Hypnosis)

Anthologies

* "Buying Online", Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle 2018 * "The Crows in Town", Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle 2017 * "The Dangar Island Garbage Boat", Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle 2016 * "Connective Tissue", Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle 2015 * "Now You Shall Know", Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle 2013 * "Coastline", Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle 2012 * "Completely Surrounded: Thirty Years of the Newcastle Poetry Prize 1981-2011", Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle 2011 * "The Wombat Vedas", ed. Jennifer Harrison and Keri Glastonbury, Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle 2011 * "Time With the Sky", ed. Jill Jones and Anthony Lawrence, Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle 2010 * ''The Night Road'', ed. Philip Salom and Jill Jones, Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle 2009 * ''to sculpt the moment'', ed. Jan Owen, Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle, 2008. * ''Eclogues'', ed. Martin Harrison, John Jenkins and Jan Owen, Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle, 2007. * ''the honey fills the cone'', ed. Judith Beveridge, Martin Harrison and Jean Kent, Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle, 2006. * ''sunweight,'', ed. Judy Johnson, Judith Beveridge & Brian Joyce, Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle, 2005. * ''The Cool Breath Burn'', (CD) ed. John Bennet, Judy Johnson & Lizz Murphy, Hunter Writers' Centre, Newcastle, 2004. * ''Unfamiliar Tides'', 2001/2002. * ''Time's Collision with the Tongue'', ed. Peter Boyle and Jan Owen, 2000. * ''The Argument from Desire'', ed. Ron K. Pretty, Five Islands Press, Wollongong, 1999. * ''The Nightjar'', ed. John Hawke, Coal River Press, Newcastle, 1997. * ''The New World Tattoo'', ed. John Hawke, Coal River Press, Newcastle, 1996. * ''Let Dark Memory Bloom'', ed. Paul Kavanagh. Newcastle: Coal River Press, 1995. * ''The Sea’s White Edge'', ed. Paul Kavanagh. Springwood: Butterfly Books, 1991. * ''Pictures from an Exhibition'', ed. Paul Kavanagh, Mattara Poetry Prize, University of Newcastle, 1989. * ''The International Terminal'', ed. Christopher Pollnitz. University of Newcastle, 1988. * ''Properties of the Poet'', ed. Paul Kavanagh. University of Newcastle, 1987. * ''An Inflection of Silence'', ed. Christopher Pollnitz. University of Newcastle, 1986. * ''Poem of Thanksgiving'', ed. Paul Kavanagh, University of Newcastle, 1985. * ''Neither Nuked nor Crucified'', ed. Christopher Pollnitz. University of Newcastle, 1984. * ''Instructions for Honey Ants'', ed. Paul Kavanagh, University of Newcastle, 1983. * ''Lines from the Horizon and Other Poems'', ed. Christopher Pollnitz. University of Newcastle, 1982. * ''The Members of the Orchestra'', ed. Paul Kavanagh, University of Newcastle, 1981.

External links

Newcastle Poetry Prize official site

Hunter Writers' Centre

Anthology Cover Design: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008: Matthew Glenn Ward

References

Hunter Writers' Centre

Prize Announcement
{{Primary sources, date=March 2007 Awards established in 1981 Australian poetry awards