Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest Award 2023

Deadline for entries
11:59pm AEST 18 December

Australia’s richest poetry prize: $40,000 Celebrating Australian female poetry in 2023

Presented by the University of Sydney, the biennial Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest Award is funded by the generous bequest of a former student of the University – Helen Anne Bell.

This year the award offers a cash prize of $40,000 for a collection of poems by an Australian female poet and its publication by Vagabond Press. This is the fifth biennial award made under the bequest, and it is now the richest poetry prize in Australia.

We invite female poets to submit a collection of poems between 50 to 80 pages to the award. The work should broadly deal with Australian culture in some way; otherwise, there are no restrictions on the subject matter.

The award is judged by three distinguished Australian female poets.

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