# Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry

The Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry is awarded annually as part of the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for a book of collected poems or for a single poem of substantial length published in book form. It is named after Kenneth Slessor (1901–1971).
The prize currently comes with a A$30,000 cash award.

## Winners and shortlists
### 2024

* Winner: Tais Rose Wae – Riverbed Sky Songs
* Pooja Mittal Biswas – Hunger and Predation
* Willo Drummond – Moon Wrasse
* Libby Hart – Burn
* Caitlin Maling – Spore or Seed
* Omar Sakr – Non-Essential Work

### 2023

* Winner: Kim Cheng Boey – The Singer and Other Poems
* Adam Aitken – Revenants
* Pam Brown – Stasis Shuffle
* Lisa Gorton – Miribilia
* Sarah Holland-Batt – The Jaguar
* Marjon Mossammaparast – And to Ecstacy

### 2022

* Winner: Dan Disney – accelerations & inertias
* Eunice Andrada – TAKE CARE
* Evelyn Araluen – Dropbear
* Eileen Chong – A Thousand Crimson Blooms
* John Kinsella – Supervivid Depastoralism
* Bella Li – Theory of Colours

### 2021

* Winner: Ellen van Neerven – Throat
* Jordie Albiston – Element: The Atomic Weight & Radius of Love
* Rebecca Jessen – Ask Me About the Future
* Jill Jones – A History of What I’ll Become
* Jaya Savige – Change Machine

### 2020

* Winner: Peter Boyle – Enfolded in the Wings of a Great Darkness
* Joanne Burns – apparently
* Zenobia Frost – After the Demolition
* Lisa Gorton – Empirical
* Natalie Harkin – Archival-Poetics
* David Malouf – An Open Book

### 2019

* Winner: Judith Bishop – Interval
* Michael Farrell – I Love Poetry
* Penelope Layland – Things I’ve Thought To Tell You Since I Saw You Last
* Philip Neilsen – Wildlife of Berlin
* Mark Reid – Blindside
* Chris Wallace-Crabbe – Rondo

### 2018

* Winner: Bella Li – Argosy
* Adam Aitken – Archipelago
* Jordie Albiston – Euclid's dog: 100 algorithmic poems
* Rico Craig – Bone Ink
* Nguyễn Tiên Hoàng – Captive and Temporal
* Omar Sakr – These Wild Houses

### 2017

* Winner: Peter Boyle – Ghostspeaking
* Paul Hetherington – Burnt Umber
* Jill Jones – Breaking the Days
* Antigone Kefala – Fragments
* John Kinsella – Firebreaks: Poems
* Ellen van Neerven – Comfort Foot

### 2016

* Winner: Joanne Burns – brush
* Lionel Fogarty – Eelahroo (Long Ago), Nyah (Looking), Möbö-Möbö (Future)
* Sarah Holland-Batt – The Hazards
* Meredith Wattison – terra bravura
* Chloe Wilson – Not Fox Nor Axe
* Ouyang Yu – Fainting

### 2015

* Winner: David Malouf – Earth Hour
* Michael Aiken – A Vicious Example
* Judith Beveridge – Devadatta's Poems
* Anne Elvey – Kin
* Libby Hart – Wild
* John Mateer – Unbelievers, or The Moor

### 2014

* Winner: Fiona Hile – Novelties, Hunter
* Justin Clemens – The Mundiad, Hunter
* Diane Fahey – The Stone Garden: poems from Clare, Clouds of Magellan
* Liam Ferney – Boom, Grand Parade Poets
* Kate Middleton – Ephemeral Waters, Giramondo Publishing
* Jessica Wilkinson – Marionette: A biography of Miss Marion Davies, Vagabond Press

### 2013

* Winner: Ali Cobby-Eckermann – Ruby Moonlight, Magabala Books
* Kate Fagan – First Light, Giramondo Publishing
* Michael Farrell – Open Sesame, Giramondo Publishing
* Anthony Lawrence – The Welfare of my Enemy, Puncher & Wattman
* Kate Lilley – Ladylike, UWA Publishing
* Vivian Smith – Here, There and Elsewhere, Giramondo Publishing

### 2012

* Winner: Gig Ryan – New and Selected Poems, Giramondo Publishing
* Ken Bolton – Sly Mongoose, Puncher and Wattman
* Susan Hawthorne – Cow, Spinifex Press
* John Mateer – Southern Barbarians, Giramondo Publishing
* Claire Potter – Swallow, Five Islands Press
* Tracy Ryan – The Argument, Fremantle Press

### 2011

* Winner: Jennifer Maiden – Pirate Rain, Giramondo Publishing
* Susan Bradley Smith – Supermodernprayerbook, Salt Publishing
* Andy Jackson – Among The Regulars, Papertiger Media Inc
* Jill Jones – Dark Bright Doors, Wakefield Press Pty
* Anna Kerdijk Nicholson – Possession, Five Island Press
* Andy Kissane – Out to Lunch, Puncher and Wattmann

### 2010

* Winner: Jordie Albiston – The Sonnet According to "M"
* Emily Ballou – The Darwin Poems
* Judith Beveridge – Storm and Honey
* Emma Jones – The Striped World
* Morgan Yasbincek – White Camel

### 2009

* Winner: LK Holt – Man Wolf Man, John Leonard Press.
* Michael Brennan – Unanimous Night, Salt Publishing
* David Brooks – The Balcony, University of Queensland Press
* Sarah Holland-Batt – Aria, University of Queensland Press
* Kerry Leves – A Shrine To Lata Mangeshkar, Puncher & Wattman
* Alan Wearne – The Australian Popular Songbook, Giramondo

### 2008

* Winner: Kathryn Lomer – Two Kinds of Silence
* Joanne Burns – an illustrated history of dairies
* Brook Emery – Uncommon Light
* Peter Kirkpatrick – Westering
* David Malouf – Typewriter Music
* Phyllis Perlstone – The Edge of Everything

### 2007

* Winner: John Tranter – Urban Myths, University of Queensland Press
* Robert Adamson – The Goldfinches of Baghdad, Flood Editions
* Laurie Duggan – The Passenger, University of Queensland Press
* Les Murray – The Biplane Houses, Black Inc.
* Simon West – First Names, Puncher and Wattmann
* Fay Zwicky – Picnic, Giramondo Publishing Company

### 2006

* Winner: Jaya Savige – Latecomers, University of Queensland Press.
* Aidan Coleman – Avenues & Runways, Brandl & Schlesinger
* Susan Hampton – The Kindly Ones, Five Islands Press
* Jill Jones – Broken/Open, Salt Publishing
* Penelope Layland – Suburban Anatomy, Pandanus Books
* David McCooey – Blister Pack, Salt Publishing

### 2005

* Winner: Samuel Wagan Watson – Smoke Encrypted Whispers, University of Queensland Press
* M. T. C. Cronin – < More or Less Than> 1–100, Shearsman Books Ltd
* Lidija Cvetkovic – War is Not the Season for Figs, University of Queensland Press
* John Kinsella – Doppler Effect, Salt Publishing
* Dipti Saravanamuttu – The Colosseum, Five Islands Press
* Alan Wearne – The Lovemakers Book Two: Money and Nothing, ABC Books

### 2004

* Winner: Pam Brown – Dear Deliria: New & Selected Poems, Salt Publishing
* Jordie Albiston – The Fall, White Crane Press
* M. T. C. Cronin – beautiful, unfinished Salt Publishing
* Brook Emery – Misplaced Heart, Five Islands Press
* Philip Hammial – In the Year of Our Lord Slaughter's Children, Island Press
* John Tranter – Studio Moon, Salt Publishing

### 2003

* Winner: Jill Jones – Screens Jets Heaven
* Alison Croggon – Attempts at Being
* Kate Lilley – Versary
* Emma Lew – Anything the Landlord Touches
* Sarah Day – New and Selected Poems
* Robert Gray – Afterimages

### 2002

* Winner: Alan Wearne – The Lovemakers, Penguin Books Australia
* Robert Adamson – Mulberry Leaves: New & Selected Poems: 1970–2001, Paper Bark Press
* Martin Harrison – Summer, Paper Bark Press
* Dorothy Hewett – Halfway Up the Mountain, Fremantle Arts Centre Press
* Bronwyn Lea – Flight Animals, University of Queensland Press
* Gig Ryan – Heroic Money, Brandl & Schlesinger
* John Tranter – Ultra, Brandl & Schlesinger

### 2001

* Winner: Ken Taylor – Africa, Five Islands Press
* Jennifer Compton – Blue, Ginninderra Press
* Brook Emery – and dug my fingers in the sand, Five Islands Press
* Philip Hammial – Bread, Black Pepper
* J. S. Harry – Sun Shadow, Moon Shadow, Vagabond Press
* Wendy Jenkins – Rogue Equations, Fremantle Arts Centre Press

### 2000

* Winner: Jennifer Maiden – Mines, Paper Bark Press/Australian Humanities Research Foundation
* Richard James Allen – Thursday's Fictions, Five Islands Press
* M. T. C. Cronin – Everything Holy, Balcones International Press
* Jennifer Harrison – Dear B, Black Pepper
* Kevin Hart – Wicked Heat, Paper Bark Press
* John Millett – Iceman, Five Islands Press

### 1999 and before

Award winners:
* 1999: Lee Cataldi – Race Against Time, Penguin Books Australia
* 1998: no awards were presented
* 1997: Anthony Lawrence – The Viewfinder, University of Queensland Press
* 1996: Eric Beach – Weeping for Lost Babylon, HarperCollins and J. S. Harry – Selected Poems, Penguin Books Australia
* 1995: Peter Boyle – Coming Home From the World, Five Islands Press
* 1994: Barry Hill – Ghosting William Buckley, William Heinemann Australia
* 1993: Les Murray – Translations from the Natural World, Isabella Press
* 1992: Elizabeth Riddell – Selected Poems, Collins Angus & Robertson
* 1991: Jennifer Maiden – The Winter Baby, Collins Angus & Robertson
* 1990: Robert Adamson – The Clean Dark, Paper Bark Press
* 1989: John Tranter – Under Berlin, University of Queensland Press
* 1988: Judith Beveridge – The Domesticity of Giraffes, Black Lightning Press
* 1987: Philip Hodgins – Blood and Bone, Angus & Robertson
* 1986: Robert Gray – Selected Poems 1963–83, Angus & Robertson
* 1985: Kevin Hart – Your Shadow, Angus & Robertson
* 1984: Les Murray – The People's Otherworld, Angus & Robertson
* 1983: Vivian Smith – Tide Country, Angus & Robertson
* 1982: Fay Zwicky – Kaddish and Other Poems, University of Queensland Press
* 1981: Alan Gould – Astral Sea, Angus & Robertson
* 1980: David Campbell – Man in the Honeysuckle, Angus & Robertson