About the poetry award

The 2026 National Schools Poetry Award is open for entries.

Image of the 2025 National Schools Poetry Award masterclass participants..
2025 National Schools Poetry Award masterclass participants (left to right): Jasmine Liu, Nazif Islam, Keiko Bruce, Thomas Rowe Palmer, Penny Dai, Aidan Clarke, essa may ranapiri (co-convenor), Alexandria Farrington, Ruby Solly (judge and co-convenor), Maia Hills, Isla Partridge, Cameron Lewes Murray.
The National Schools Poetry Award is held annually by Te Pūtahi Tuhi Auahua o Te Ao—International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML), subject to funding. It is free to enter and open to Year 12 and 13 students across New Zealand. Information is emailed to all eligible schools in March each year that the Award is held and students can enter online.

The winner and nine finalists win cash and prizes for their poems, plus an invitation to attend an exclusive masterclass with leading New Zealand poets at the IIML on Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington's Kelburn campus. (Full prize details below.) Finalists and their teachers are contacted in August, prior to the public announcement of the winner and the shortlisted poets on National Poetry Day: Friday 21 August in 2026.

You can read the winning and finalist poems from 2025 and all previous Awards on our Schools Poetry Award website. You can also read current and previous judges' reports, or download media releases below.

Thanks to Creative New Zealand, Wonderlab, and our loyal Schools Poetry Award supporters—Read NZ Te Pou Muramura, New Zealand Society of Authors, and Landfall for continuing to make this annual event possible.

The National Schools Writing Festival, which accompanied the Poetry Award for a number of years, was suspended in 2010 due to a lack of ongoing funding support. However, a one-day Schools Writers Festival for upper secondary students and teachers in the Wellington region was held in July 2024. We hope to offer this again in future.

Our 2026 judge—Rebecca Hawkes

Image of poet Rebecca Hawkes, 2026 National Schools Poetry Award judgeRebecca Hawkes is a Pākehā painter-poet raised in rural Canterbury, now living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Her first book was Meat Lovers, a finalist in America's Lambda Literary Awards and winner of a Laurel Prize in the UK. She edits the hot-blooded poetry journal Sweet Mammalian and co-edited the anthology No Other Place to Stand. Rebecca holds an MFA in yearning (and, to a lesser extent, poetry) from the University of Michigan, and an MA in half-truths (Creative Non-Fiction) from the International Institute of Modern Letters. Her work has been recognised by Fulbright, Salt Hill, Palette Poetry's Sappho Prize, and the Academy of American Poets, among other flatteries. Her new work is forthcoming with Ngā Pukapuka Pekapeka, Auckland University Press and Yes Yes Books.

(Photo by Ebony Lamb.)

Media releases

2026 prizes

First prize

  • a $500 cash prize for the winner
  • a $500 book grant for the winner’s school library
  • an invitation to attend a one-day poetry masterclass at the IIML on Saturday 22 August 2026, including flights and one night's accommodation at the Bolton Hotel for students outside the Greater Wellington region
  • a year’s membership of Read NZ Te Pou Muramura
  • a year's membership of the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA)
  • a year's subscription to the leading New Zealand literary journal Landfall.

Runners-up prizes

  • a $100 cash prize
  • an invitation to attend a one-day poetry masterclass  at the IIML on Saturday 22 August 2026, including flights and one night's accommodation at the Bolton Hotel for students outside the Greater Wellington region
  • a year's membership of Read NZ Te Pou Muramura.

The Poetry Kit is a free, downloadable resource produced by the IIML for students and their teachers to use in the lead-up to the Award and beyond.

Download pdf474KBThe Poetry Kit.

The Kit includes writing exercises, links to useful and inspiring creative writing websites, and tips on writing from internationally acclaimed poets, and is updated and modified from time to time.

Writing poetry is about allowing the unexpected in, so the word magic can happen. One way to invite the unexpected is to use a writing exercise that will open you up to the surprises and potential of language. We hope the exercises may spark a poem or an idea for an Award entry. They will, at the very least, get the pen moving across the page.

Supporters

cnz-artsboardThe National Schools Poetry Award receives funding from Creative New Zealand

and promotional support from Wonderlab.

Prize partners

Victoria University Press