Venie Holmgren Poetry Prize Opens for 2026 Entries

Australian poets with a passion for the natural world are invited to enter the 2026 Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Prize, offering a $1,000 major prize for unpublished work.

The prize honours Venie Holmgren, who began writing poetry in her late fifties and went on to become a celebrated performance poet and environmental activist. She was arrested twice while protesting logging trucks to save native forests on the NSW far south coast, and her first anthology, The Sun Collection for the Planet, became a poetry bestseller in 1989. She passed away in 2016 at the age of 93.

This year's judges are locals, Peter O'Mara and Dr Patrick Jones.

Peter O'Mara is a Hepburn-based writer and artist whose work has appeared in leading literary journals including Meanjin, Overland, Cordite and Island. He was selected for Best Australian Poetry 2025. Dr Jones brings a distinctive perspective to the role — his research explores "permapoesis," a creative framework that weaves together poetry, ecology and place-based living.

Poems must be no longer than 80 lines and must carry an environmental theme. Only Australian citizens and permanent residents are eligible. Each entry requires a $10 fee, and multiple poems are welcome. The poet's name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript or file, as all entries are judged anonymously.

Submissions close at 11.59pm EST on Monday, August 3, 2026. The winner will be announced during the Words in Winter festival in Daylesford on Sunday, August 30.

For full terms, conditions and the online entry form, please visit the Holmgren Design website.

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