Whitsunday Writers Festival Poetry Competition 2026
Warm greetings from the Whitsundays Writers Festival.
Congratulations! We’re delighted to let you know that your poem has been longlisted for the 2026 Whitsundays Literary Heart Awards Poetry Prize.
This year we received more than 70 entries from across Australia, representing an exceptional range of voices, styles, and perspectives.
Following the first round of judging, your work has been selected as one of the poems progressing to the next stage.
The judging process will now continue, with the shortlist announced on Monday 10 August, before the winner and runner-up
are revealed at the 2026 Whitsundays Writers Festival on Sunday 13 September.
Your achievement reflects the strength of your writing, and we hope you’ll take a moment to celebrate reaching this stage of the competition.
The Longlist
The Poetry Prize offers a first prize of $1,000 and $500 for the runner up for up to 50-lines of unpublished poems.
We are delighted to announce the longlisted submissions for the 2026 Poetry Prize:
Breaking News, Anne Casey (NSW)
Caught You Red-Handed, Himara Jayasundara (SA)
Don’t Let The Old Lady In, Jan Smith (Qld)
Echo, Diane Robinson (NSW)
EDT80s, Scott Jackson (NSW)
For One Who Has No Stone To Say, Greg Lewis (Qld)
Night Flight, Anne Casey (NSW)
Old Salty, Colleen Keating (NSW)
Pino Grigio Beside the Water, Suzy Gordon (Qld)
Possession, Jo Skinner (Qld)
Red-eyed Rain, David Atkinson (NSW)
She’s a Beauty, Melinda Jane (SA)
Special, Scott Jackson (NSW)
Spider Woman, Josephine Seago (Qld)
Spitfire, Richard Pellatt (Qld)
Stories in Every Strand, Paul Fuller (Qld)
Subsea, Andrea Louise Thomas (Vic)
Super Bra, Hemi Croft (WA)
Swimming Pool at Hotel Borobodur, Jakarta, Chris Palazzolo (WA)
The Bay, Pip Griffin (NSW)
The Bush Blanket (A light hearted look at the history of the blanket), Ken Cleine (Qld)
The Furthest Tent, Scott Jackson (NSW)
The Pendulum of Green and Frost, Julie Butler (NSW)
The Yellow Wall, John Glanville (Qld)
Thin, Scott Jackson (NSW)
Tran Sends Ants, Kim Pham (NSW)
Unravelled by the Shallows, David Atkinson (NSW)
Verdigrisleeves, Paris Rosemont (NSW)
A rigorous, fair process
All entries were judged anonymously, with judges assessing each poem without any knowledge of the poet’s identity. Poems were scored individually against a consistent set of criteria — purpose and coherence, technical craft, originality of voice, and emotional or intellectual impact. This judging process ensures that vastly different styles of poetry could each be judged fairly on their own terms, rather than compared directly against one another.
Wonderful to have my name with some great poets Pip Griffin and Di Roberson. ( winner of the Liquid Amber Poetry Prize for an emerging poet.) Good luck to all of us for the next selection.