The 2019 New Zealand Poetry Society Competition is now open.

Entries must be received by 31 May 2019.

Our competition has multiple options for entering, depending on your age and the poetry genre (verse or haiku). The links below take you to all the forms you need, as well as the instructions for entering each competition. School group rules are for multiple entries collated by class teachers – individual students should use the general entry forms.

Competition rules and entry forms:

• Open and Junior Open – rules
• Open and Junior Open – entry form
• Haiku and Junior Haiku – rules
• Haiku and Junior Haiku – entry form

School Group rules and entry forms:

• Junior Open: Primary/Intermediate – entry form
• Junior Open: Secondary – entry form
• Junior Haiku: Primary/Intermediate – entry form
• Junior Haiku: Secondary – entry form
• School Group – rules

Emailed entries are accepted only when payment is made through PayPal. Please go to: Paypal Entry

Please take care to choose the correct form. Individuals can choose the Open and Junior Open Section or the Haiku and Junior Haiku Section.

Teachers entering their students’ work should not use the individual forms, as there are different rules and entry forms for verse and haiku, plus discounts for multiple entries. Teachers are also welcome to enter their own work in the Open and/or Haiku Section.

The Junior prize winners are divided into two age divisions: primary/intermediate school, and secondary school. For those outside the New Zealand educational system, the cut-off age between the two is 13 years.

Open Section

Prizes: 1^st prize NZ$600, 2^nd prize NZ$300, 3^rd prize NZ$200. No entrant will win more than 1 cash prize. Up to 20 Commendations.

Entry fee is NZ$8 per poem; NZPS members – NZ$7 per poem. 1 free with every 5 entries (ie pay for 5 get 6 entries, pay for 10 get 12 entries).

Open Junior Section

Prizes (Open only to entrants who are 17 years of age or younger on 31 May) First Prize: NZ$200. Secondary Runner-up NZ$100; Primary/Intermediate Runner-up: NZ$50. No entrant will win more than 1 cash prize. Up to 20 Commendations.

Entry fee is NZ$2.50 per poem. 1 free with every 5 entries (ie pay for 5 get 6 entries, pay for 10 get 12 entries).

Haiku Section

Prizes: The top five haiku/senryu will be awarded NZ$100 each. Up to 20 commendations. No entrant will win more than 1 cash prize, except that the 1^st prize winner will be awarded the additional Jeanette Stace Memorial Prize of $150.

Entry fee: NZ$3 per haiku; NZ$2 for NZPS members. Multiple entry discounts: 1 free with every 5 entries (ie pay for 5 get 6 entries, pay for 10 get 12 entries).

Junior Haiku Section

Open to entrants who are 17 years of age or younger on 31 May.

Prizes: Primary/Intermediate: three prizes of NZ$50; Secondary: three prizes of NZ$50. Up to 20 commendations. No entrant will win more than 1 cash prize, except that the best of the two 1^st prize winners will be awarded the additional Jeanette Stace Memorial Prize of $100.

Entry fee: NZ$1 per haiku. 1 free with every 5 entries (ie pay for 5 get 6 entries, pay for 10 get 12 entries).

 

2019 Judges:

Open Section:

Kiri Piahana-Wong is a poet and editor, and is the publisher at Anahera Press. Her first poetry collection, Night Swimming, was released in 2013; a second book, Tidelines, is due out next year. Kiri lives in Auckland with her partner and baby son. 

Open Junior Section:

Miriam Barr is an Auckland-based poet and performer who often collaborates with musicians, visual artists, and other poets. Her most recent collection Bullet Hole Riddle was published by Steele Roberts in 2014 and her work has appeared in numerous journals, anthologies, art exhibitions, and live events across NZ and abroad. Miriam was the inaugural Poetry Idol slam champion in 2007, won People’s Choice at the Bowery Poetry Club’s open mic in New York (2015), and has been an active supporter of the poetry community in NZ through her roles as an MC at the long-running weekly open mic night, Poetry Live (2006-2011), founding editor of a free poetry zine called Side Stream, co-founder of transient street art collective The Guerrilla Poets, creative director of poetry theatre group The Literatti (2007-2010), and national coordinator of NZ’s annual National Poetry Day (2014-2016).

Haiku Section:

Gregory Piko lives in Canberra, Australia. For the past 15 years, his haiku have appeared regularly in the major international haiku journals and in anthologies such as Haiku 21: an anthology of contemporary English-language haiku, A Vast Sky: An Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku, Nest Feathers (selected haiku from The Heron’s Nest), The Wonder Code, and Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years. Gregory’s haiku have been awarded Second Prize in the ‘Kusamakura’ International Haiku Competition (Japan), received a Touchstone Award from The Haiku Foundation (USA) and been awarded first prize in the New Zealand Poetry Society’s International Haiku Competition. He blogs at www.gregorypiko.com.

Haiku Junior Section:

Anne Curran lives in Hamilton New Zealand. She has enjoyed many past-times throughout her life but one of her most inspired is haiku poet. She started to write haiku while teaching about 2008. Her first haiku to be published was in Kokako 12, April 2010, a moment of great excitement. She has continued to publish since then. In her early twenties, she lived in Japan for two years which provided scope for exposure to and appreciation of a Japanese aesthetic. She has been fortunate to enjoy mentoring from many friends, editors, and fellow writers who share that same love of short verse forms.

 

 

All entries are eligible to be published in our annual poetry anthology. Notification of acceptance for publication will be made by 31st August.