2025 Shortlist & Emerging Poet Prize Winners announced

Poet	Title of poem
SHORTLIST
Angela Costi	The Brace Position
Annie Hunter	Aerial
Kim Kenyon	The view under the bridge south of Kingscliff, at 5am.
Carolyn Masel	New Zealand Bound
Hannah McCann	Griffin/Girl
Victoria McGrath	The Crow
Mark Roberts	Theory of flight for two voices
EMERGING POET PRIZE
Hannah McCann	Griffin/Girl
Nikki Viveca	Augury

Judges: Rose Lucas, Ali Whitelock and Willo Drummond
First and Second Prize Winners and Highly Commended announced: 12 August 2025

First prize – $1,250
Second prize – $650

Poetry of Flight to be launched by Rae White: Poetry Zoom, 27 November 2025
Register here

Congratulations to the seven poets on the Shortlist

The 2025 Liquid Amber Poetry Prize invited poets to riff to the broad theme of ‘flight’.

A massive shout out to the seven poets with poems in the Shortlist. In their poems they fearlessly explore various forms of darkness and inequity to be escaped from, as well as things that lift the heart into ecstasy and hope – expressing the deepest, and the most soaring elements of our complex, often messy, human experience.

And to our Emerging Poet Prize winners

As a keen supporter of the entire range of voices within the poetry community, Liquid Amber Press are also delighted to celebrate:

our two Emerging Poet winners
Hannah McCann and Nikki Viveca.

The Emerging Poet Prize is an Editing Service Pack with Rose Lucas and Ali Whitelock.

Poetry of Flight – Pre-publication offer

All the poems in the Longlist will be published in this year’s anthology Poetry of Flight: The Liquid Amber Prize Anthology (forthcoming 1 November, RRP $29.99). All poets in the anthology will receive a complimentary copy.

And there is currently a pre-publication offer. Order copies now for a 15% discount.