In 2021 Australian Poetry (AP) began a new annual series surveying and showcasing the flourishing literature of Australian poetry. Our 2023 volume follows the first two prestigious volumes of Best of Australian Poems (BoAP) with guest editors for 2023 being highly respected poets and editors, Gig Ryan and Panda Wong. Previous volume editors have been Jeanine Leane and Judith Beveridge (2022) and Ellen van Neerven and Toby Fitch (2021).
The volume will publish a selection of 100 poems that capture a poetic snapshot and barometer of the year that was. Exploring what might constitute a ‘best of’ anthology, and to ensure, and celebrate, inclusivity and richness of genre, the selection process includes an open call-out for submissions, along with a co-guest-editor model.
The open call-out for submissions will be available via an online Wufoo form from Monday 10 July 2023–Monday 1 August 2023, 11:59PM. Poems submitted for this anthology may be previously published or unpublished, but must have been written and/or first published between 1 July 2022 and 1 August 2023.
Guest Editors will also independently read as widely as possible work published in this time period by Australia’s incredible poetry sector, including journals, magazines, individual collections and anthologies.
BoAP 2023 has a publication date of 1 December. An event will again be presented in partnership with the Wheeler Centre in early 2024. The book will be beautifully produced and will sell as a stand-alone title, alongside other AP subscriber publications. Other staff on this project include Designer Sophie Gaur, Publisher is Jacinta Le Plastrier, Managing Editor Adalya Nash Hussein and, on AP Socials, Jennifer Nguyen. The publication is funded by the Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria and private patrons.
AP, as a national poetry body, publishes the national poetry journal, Australian Poetry Journal, and a range of other annual digital and print anthologies. These publications also publish poets who appear in AP’s many events with national literary festivals. AP would like to deeply honour prior ‘Best’ Australian poems and poetry series, including Black Inc.’s prestigious, long-running and impactful The Best Australian Poems series, (2003–2017). It is intended that BoAP regenerates and continues these traditions, where each volume presents a selection of that period’s most remarkable poets and poems.
Submissions Open: Monday 10 July 2023–Monday 1 August 2023, 11:59PM.
For call-out information and submission guidelines, head here. For enquiries, please contact Managing Editor Adalya Nash Hussein at associate@australianpoetry.org
To support the work of Australian Poetry, please consider subscribing or donating here: australianpoetry.org/subscribe
You do not need to be a subscriber to submit poems to BoAP.
Gig Ryan’s New and Selected Poems (Giramondo, 2011); Selected Poems, (Bloodaxe Books, U.K.), was winner of the 2012 Grace Leven Prize for Poetry and the 2012 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry. She has also written songs with Disband, Six Goodbyes (1988), and more
Panda Wong is a Malaysian-Chinese poet who lives on unceded Wurundjeri land. Her first chapbook angel wings dumpster fire was published by Puncher & Wattmann in 2022. Her first EP salmon cannon me into the abyss, a collaboration with multiple friends, was released in July 2022
