Two 2019 Australian Book Review competitions are now open!

The 2019 Peter Porter Poetry Prize and Calibre Essay Prize from the Australian Book Review are now open.

With $16,000 worth of prizes up for grabs from these two competitions, it’s worth checking out the details below.

Peter Porter Poetry Prize – $8500
The Porter Prize is one of Australia’s most lucrative and respected awards for poetry. It honours the life and work of the great Australian poet Peter Porter (1929-2010), an honoured contributor to ABR for many years. All poets writing in English are eligible to enter.

From the ABR website:

“Entries must be an original single-authored poem of not more than 75 lines written in English. Poems must not have been previously published or on offer to other prizes or publications for the duration of the Porter Prize. The five shortlisted poems will be published in the March 2019 issue and the winner will be announced at a ceremony later that month.”

Nicholas Wong who the prize in 2018 with his poem 101, Taipei said:

“I’m honoured and humbled to be the winner, especially with a poem whose subject matter may seem foreign. Winning the Porter Prize also allows me to reach out to Australian readers.”

The judges for the 2019 Peter Porter Poetry Prize are Judith Bishop, Paul Kane and John Hawke.

First prize: $5000 and an Arthur Boyd etching and aquatint: The Lady and the Unicorn (1975).
Second prize: $2000.
Three shortlisted poems will receive $500 each.
Entries close Monday 3 December 2018.

You can find out more about how to enter via the ABR website.

Calibre Essay Prize – $7500
Entry is now open for 2019 Calibre Essay Prize with an awesome $7500 up for grabs. Founded in 2007 the Calibre Prize is one of the world’s leading prizes for a new non-fiction essay.

According to the ABR website:

“Entry is open to all essayists writing in English. We are seeking essays of between 2000 and 5000 words on any subject. We welcome essays of all kinds: personal or political, literary or speculative, traditional or experimental.

“Entries must be an original single-authored non-fiction essay and essays must not have been previously published or on offer to other prizes or publications for the duration of the Calibre Prize.”

Lucas Grainger-Brown won the 2018 prize for his essay called We Three Hundred.

According to the ABR website:

“We Three Hundred is a candid and unsentimental account of life as a cadet at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra for a bookish, idealistic adolescent straight out of high school.”

The judges of the 2019 Calibre Prize are J.M. Coetzee, Anna Funder and Peter Rose (ABR Editor).

Entries close Monday 14 January 2019.
You can find out more about how to enter via the ABR website.

Good luck to everyone entering these two amazing writing competitions.