2026 Poetry Prize – Longlist

Poets and poems ‘on fire’

In 2026 poets submitting to the Liquid Amber Poetry Prize were invited to respond to the prompt of ‘poetry on fire’ and encouraged to riff on this theme as broadly as their imaginations might take them.

This year, as our world convulses in suffering, violence and uncertainty, ‘fire’ seems to speak to many experiences of loss as well as the tenacious possibilities of hope, even transcendence – and poetry provides an essential register for these articulations and the insights that come with them.

The judges said… we were honoured to encounter everyone’s work, both those in this Longlist and those we were unable to include. Your words of heart and courage and the skilfulness of your craft in turns moved, impressed and inspired us. We read your poems aloud to each other, experiencing them from different perspectives. Individually and collectively the poems were indeed wonderfully, disruptively, compellingly ‘on fire’ – thank you.

First prize – $1,250
Second prize – $650
Best Poem by an Emerging Poet – Editing Service Pack with Rose Lucas

Poems on the Longlist are published as the 2026 anthology  Poetry on Fire,  to be launched by Nathan Curnow at the Poetry Zoom event, 26 November 2026

All poets with a poem in the Longlist will receive a complimentary copy of the anthology.

Introducing the Liquid Amber range