The winner will receive AUD$15,000

The runner-up (second-placed poem) will receive AUD$5,000

Four additional poems will be short-listed

All poems entered for the prize will be single poems that have a maximum length of 50 lines (see the Conditions of Entry for further details)

Each entry of a poem will cost AUD$15 if submitted by 11:59pm GMT, 28 February 2018 and AUD$20 if submitted between 1 March and 30 June 2018. There are discounts for students.

The University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize has been offered annually since 2014. On behalf of the University, this is administered by the International Poetry Studies Institute (IPSI), part of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research in the Faculty of Arts and Design.

The prize celebrates the enduring significance of poetry to cultures everywhere in the world, and its ongoing and often seminal importance to world literatures. It marks the University of Canberra’s commitment to creativity and imagination in all that it does, and builds on the work of the International Poetry Studies Institute in identifying poetry as a highly resilient and sophisticated human activity. It also builds on the activities of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, which conducts wide-ranging research into human creativity and culture.

The 2018 prize will be announced in September 2018 and prize winners and short-list will be notified prior to that.

Image: Caren Florance & Angela Gardner, detail from Working Papers: torrent, 2015-17. Letterpress and ink on Gykurya washi, unique.