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.

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