The SCWC 2024 Poetry Award

The Gentle Art of Poetry At Wollongong Art Gallery

20 January, 12:30 - 2:30pm

Poetry Award 2023 winner Meredith Wattison leads a poetry workshop responding to the art of Ian Gentle. This workshop is a welcoming inclusive space which aims to inspire and motivate participants to write new work. Participants will read and discuss examples of poetry that responds to both art and artist as a springboard for developing their own work. This workshop will include a 30-minute exhibition tour led by gallery staff.

25 February, 2:00 - 4:00pm

Award-winning local writer (of poetry & stories) Kathleen Bleakley will lead a poetry workshop connected to both the retrospective exhibition of artist Ian Gentle and the responses to his work by other artists. After a 30-minute exhibition tour led by gallery staff, Kathleen will lead participants through a range of exercises to spark their creative riposte.

BOOKINGS

The winning poetry award entries will be published in the SCWC 2024 Anthology. Before you submit to the Poetry Award, we recommend that you read the exceptional work of the previous SCWC Poetry Award winners as published in our anthologies. Available here from the store. Get 10% with the code SUBMIT10

We also recommend Creating Poetry by SCWC Poetry program founder Ron Pretty. Creating Poetry will help you transform that bad poem into something to be proud of. From simple exercises for the beginner, through to the complexities of the sonnet form, the villanelle, or the enjambments of modern verse.  Order here.

If you can’t get to the exhibitions at Wollongong Art Gallery, or Clifton School of Arts, you can also respond to the exhibition work via the book Ian Gentle: The Found Line.  

Edited by David Roach, the book is a celebration of the sculptor and educator whose famously cluttered studio on the Illawarra coast inspired a generation of young artists, and is published to coincide with the launch of The Gentle Project. 

Purchase here

By entering the South Coast Writers Centre Poetry Award 2024 you agree to the following terms and conditions:

1. Who Can Enter?

1.1.      Entry is open to anyone living in Australia over the age of 18, with the exclusion of:

1.2.      Committee of management members and staff of the South Coast Writers Centre.

2. How to Enter?

2.1.      The competition commences on December 16th 2023 and close 5th March 2024 11:59pm AEST.

2.2.      Entries must be single poems of no more than 50 lines. Only one poem should be submitted per entry form.

2.3.      For entries not primarily written in English, an English translation should be provided for the judges.

2.4.      The text should be presented with 1.5 line spacing and in 12pt plain font. Pages should be numbered.

2.5.      The author’s name must not appear in the document or in the name of the digital file. The file name should include only the title of the poem.

2.6       The name of the poem (entry) should match the name of the digital file.

2.6.      Multiple entries are permitted, but each poem must be submitted individually.

2.7.      Entries must be original works written by an individual author.

2.8.      Entries should not be on offer to other publications or prizes for the duration of the competition.

2.9.      Previously published, or prize-winning poems will not be accepted.

2.10     All entries must be submitted via the entry portal on the South Coast Writers Centre website.

2.11.    Submission fee of $15 per poem. Reduced submission fee of $10 per poem for SCWC members. Member discount code can be found here.

3. Theme

3.1       The SCWC Poetry Award 2024 seeks poems responding to the theme ‘gentle’.

3.2       The Gentle Project is the title of the project umbrella for two exhibitions at Wollongong Art Gallery from December 2023 - March 2024: Horny Sticks & Wandering Lines, and A Gentle Response.

3.3       Submitted poems do not need to respond specifically to the exhibitions. The Award invites creative interpretations to the theme ‘gentle’.

3.4       The Wollongong Art Gallery Special Award will be awarded to the best specific response to the exhibitions.

4. Prize and Publication Details

4.1.      The first-place winning entry will receive a $1000 cash prize and the second-place entry will receive a $100 cash prize.

4.2 The Ron Pretty Award of $100 award will be given to the best poem submitted by an SCWC member.

4.2       The Wollongong Art Gallery will award a $100 gallery store voucher to the poem that best responds to the exhibitions.

4.3.      The South Coast Writers Centre will publish all the four winning entries in its 2024 anthology. Poets will retain the copyright of these poems and agree to licence them to the SCWC for publication.

4.4       The South Coast Writers Centre reserves the right to not publish the winner or any runners up.

5. Judging Process

5.1.      The winning entries will be chosen anonymously by a panel of judges.

5.2.      The judges will include SCWC Director Sarah Nicholson.

5.3       In the event of unforeseen circumstances, SCWC reserves the right to change the judging panel.

5.4.      SCWC reserves the right not to award a prize if the judges so recommend.

5.5.      Announcement dates are TBA.

5.6.      The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into about the judgements or the judging process.

5.7.      SCWC reserves the right to select an alternative winner in the event a winner is unable to satisfy these terms and conditions, forfeits, or does not claim the prize.

6. Privacy

6.1. Personal Information provided to SCWC for the purpose of conducting the competition and notifying the winner will be kept strictly confidential and will not be sold, rented, loaned or otherwise disclosed to a third party otherwise than in accordance with these terms and conditions

The SCWC Poetry Award 2023 responded to the theme ‘in colour’, in association with Wollongong Art Gallery’s exhibition Thinking Through Pink. Prize winners were Meredith Wattison, ‘And my pink ashes’; Scott Patrick-Mitchell, ‘Ouside the Cyanometer’; Kathleen Bleakley, ‘Crab Nest’; and Carolyn Leach-Paholski, ‘Pigment’.

Read the judges’ remarks by guest judge Peter Ramm here.

All Poetry Award winners are published in the SCWC anthology. The 2022 anthology Mantle and the 2021 anthology Legacies are available to purchase in our shop. Submissions are open for the 2023/24 anthology Chroma until 7 January 2024.