Established in 2007, The Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for new and emerging poets is supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation. Entrants must have no more than one collection of poems published under their own name. This year, the major prize is $6000, and second and third prizes are $2000 and $1000 respectively. All three poets will be published in Overland.

We received nearly 800 entries from emerging poets from Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. We’d like to thank all entrants for their imaginative work, and our team of incredible judges, Toby Fitch, Astrid Lorange, and Ender Başkan. They rose to the challenging task of reading and judging a diverse and exciting range of poems.

After careful consideration, the judges have selected eight outstanding poems to form this year’s Judith Wright Poetry Prize shortlist.

Congratulations to the following poets:

Daniel Grima

‘al Mafrak’

On sound, mysticism and colour; a glimpse of Miniara where all time is eternally present.

Daniel Rafet Grima writes and composes music, often with inquiry into the metaphysical and spiritual impressions of family and migration, history and faith.

Dominic Symes

‘ACAB’

This poem depicts being newly in love, walking home after Gareth Morgan and Elese Dowden’s ‘Moodboarding Melbourne’ class at MSL – I wanted to keep interrogating interrogation, critiquing critique, dissecting dissection & so on.

Dominic Symes lives quietly in Naarm. He writes poems, which over the last few years have appeared in Australian journals and anthologies – think Overland, Cordite, Griffith, BOAP etc. His debut collection I saw the best memes of my generation (Recent Work Press) was highly commended in the 2024 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

Emilie Collyer

‘soft shell’

‘soft shell’ tries to navigate the space between a vulnerable, difficult body and its awkward place in the world.

Emilie Collyer lives on unceded Wurundjeri Country where she writes across forms, with work published and produced in Australia and internationally. Her poetry collection Do you have anything less domestic? (Vagabond Press) won the inaugural Five Islands Press Prize for a first book. Her play ‘Super’ premieres at Red Stitch in 2025. 

Janaka Malwatta

‘Where’s Daddy?’

‘Where’s Daddy?’ is driven by a desire to shine a light on the horrors of Gaza, in this instance how AI and automated software systems are intimately involved in the indiscriminate killing of civilians. 

Janaka Malwatta won the 2021 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize for blackbirds don’t mate with starlings, published by University of Queensland Press. He has appeared at Brisbane Writers Festival and the OzAsia Festival, and has been published in various magazines. He spends his time between Sri Lanka and Brisbane.

Joel Keith

‘Trans Pastoral’

The lake by which I wrote ‘Trans Pastoral’ – Blue Lake, on Wurundjeri Country – was once a quarry, which was closed in the ’70s due to groundwater seepage; the moorhens the poem describes swimming on its surface were, in truth, probably grebes (a wonderful name for a bird, but one my poem could not account for).

Joel Keith is a writer and musician living on unceded Wurundjeri land. Their work has appeared in Island, Cordite, The Suburban Review, Overland, and elsewhere. They are an editor at Voiceworks.

Laura Charlton

‘referencing suburbs’

Got mad at a reading night, started writing ‘referencing suburbs’, showed it to a friend who said I was doing the very thing I was mad about in the poem, they were RIGHT, I got madder, I kept working on the poem – it’s about trying harder to do what you’re trying hard to do!

Laura Charlton writes poetry, fiction, and plays. She is part of the editorial teams at Voiceworks and Going Down Swinging. She lives and works on Wurundjeri country.

Luke Patterson

‘Dreaming Inside Dillwynia Women’s Prison’

This poem, reflective of my experiences working on the Ngana Barangarai project, represents a naive/wilfully ignorant masculinist critique of the carceral violence inflicted on First Nations women within the Australian colony.

Luke Patterson is a Gamilaroi poet, musician, and educator living on Gadigal lands. His poetry appears in Cordite Poetry Review, Plumwood Mountain, Rabbit, Red Room, and The Suburban Review. He has featured in the anthologies Active Aesthetics, Firefront: First Nation’s Poetry and Power Today, and Nangamay Mana Djurali: First Nations LGBTQI+ Poetry. Luke’s research and creative pursuits are grounded in extensive work with First Nations and other community-based organisations across Australia. 

Neika Lehman

‘The Dog House’

‘The Dog House’ is a love letter and community record of life lived under the pool tables of the iconic Dog House pub in Nipaluna | Hobart. Cruising between the late 1800s to now, this poem tells the story of multiple lives lived and lost and how a few end up being remembered.

Neika Lehman is writer from Nipaluna/Hobart, living and working in Naarm/Melbourne. They descend from the Trawlwoolway peoples and grew up in the Palawa community of 1990s Nipaluna/Hobart.

Congratulations again to the shortlisted poets. Final results will be announced at Overland soon!

The Judith Wright Poetry Prize is supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation