Established in 2007 and supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize seeks outstanding poetry from new and emerging writers.

This year’s judges, Andy Jackson, Autumn Royal, Elena Gomez and Toby Fitch (who is also Overland’s poetry editor) read nearly 700 entries before selecting a shortlist of eight outstanding works. The judges then chose three unforgettable poems to place first, second and third in this year’s prize. Look out for the winning poems in the autumn 2024 issue of Overland.

Overland, the judges and the Malcolm Robertson Foundation are thrilled to announce the final results of the 2023 Judith Wright Poetry Prize. Congratulations to the following poets!

First place ($6000)

Andrew Brooks

‘Celestial Tree’

‘Celestial Tree’ is a poem about the grease of empire.

Andrew Brooks lives on unceded Wangal land where he is a lecturer in Media and Culture at UNSW, one half of the critical art collective Snack Syndicate (along with Astrid Lorange), a co-organiser of the Infrastructural Inequalities research network and a member of the publishing collective Rosa Press.

Second place ($2000)

William Fox

‘Febrile’

‘Febrile’ is about seeing my little sister go into convulsion at a cricket game in 1991.  

William Fox is from Naarm / Melbourne. His work has appeared previously in places like Meanjin, Island, Overland, Cordite, and the Best Australian Poems series of books. His debut collection, Apollo Bay, was released by Rabbit in 2023. He holds a PhD in Literary Studies from Melbourne University, and works in law.

Third place ($1000)

Chloe Mayne

‘larapuna’

This poem is for my ancestral grandmothers, the saltwater women of lutruwita’s north-east. It is for the fire-boulders, who watch on, and the sound of all the footprints they hold. It is for menstrual blood as a messenger, and remembering a world before barbed wire.

Chloe Mayne is a pakana poet whose work twines threads of motherhood, decoloniality and ecology. She is currently writing a creative doctorate at the University of the Sunshine Coast, while living in an old beach shack near her hometown of nipaluna/Hobart.

The Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize is supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation