About the Prize

The KYD Poetry Prize is a new initiative dedicated to creating new space for the beauty, experimentation and radical linguistic potential of verse. We seek previously unpublished poems of up to 80 lines from new, emerging and established Australian poets. You must be a KYD Member to enter.

The first prize winner will receive $1000, and two runners-up will both receive $500.

About the Judges

We are honoured to have esteemed poets Sara M. Saleh and Ender Başkan join KYD editor Suzy Garcia in the judging of the 2026 prize.

Sara M. Saleh is an award-winning writer and poet of Palestinian, Egyptian and Lebanese heritage based on Darug country. Her debut novel Songs for the Dead and the Living and poetry collection The Flirtation of Girls have received multiple prizes and shortlistings. Deeply committed to community, craft and storytelling, she has led workshops and appeared at festivals, classrooms and community spaces across Australia and internationally. In 2025, she co-edited the poetry anthology Ritual.

Ender Başkan is a poet, novelist, small-press publisher and bookseller living on unceded Wurundjeri land. The winner of the 2021 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize, his poems have been published in HEAT, Overland, Meanjin, Cordite, Unusual Work and Best of Australian Poems. His poetry collection Two Hundred Million Musketeers has been nominated for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, ALS Gold Medal and Mary Gilmore Award.

Both judges are excited to see poetry that pushes the boundaries of form and content. ‘I’m looking forward to reading poems that take risks formally and thematically,’ says Ender Başkan. ‘I love poetry that I experience as free, that doesn’t feel the need to justify itself.’ It’s a call also taken up by his co-judge Sara M. Saleh: ‘I am looking for bold, emotionally resonant work that is unafraid to play with/challenge/upset the world around it.’

The prize will open for submissions on 6 July 2026 via Submittable. You must be a KYD Member to enter.