THE UNIVERSITY of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s newly-announced Poetry Prize is one of the most generous competitions of its kind in the world, with a first prize of $15,000 and a total prize pool of $25,000.

With recent news of expansions in the UC music programs, this announcement further enhances the University’s growing reputation as a centre for as supporter of the arts.

“I would like this to become one of the most prestigious poetry prizes in the world, attracting and rewarding the finest writers,” says UC Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Parker.

“This prize underscores our commitment to excellence in creative writing in its various forms. We have amongst our graduates some highly successful novelists and screenplay writers. We have introduced the UC Book of the Year, which is sent to staff members and all first year students each year. And we have now created an International Poetry Studies Institute as an investment in a further area of creative writing.

The competition’s judging panel made up of Australian poets Jennifer Harrison, Brook Emery and Judith Beveridge and British poet Philip Gross and is administered by the University’s International Poetry Studies Institute, which last year won an Australian Research Council grant to investigate how the role of creativity in poetry could be applicable in other areas.

According to researcher Professor Jen Webb, “It is about rewarding creative practice at the highest level and it is supported by our growing reputation for research and practice in poetry.”

In addition to the $15,000 for the best poem, there is a $5,000 prize for a runner-up. The shortlisted poems will also be published in an annual anthology, which will be a record of excellent international poetry. Entry is open to anyone in the world except the judges themselves and UC staff.

Entries will be previously unpublished poems, written in English (translations are not eligible) and up to 50 lines in length.

For information visit canberra.edu.au/vcpoetryprize