2026 Poetry Prize – announcing the winners …

Highly Commended – E.Hikida for
‘Front Row Seats’

Second prize winner – Wes Lee for
‘The World, A Brief Dream Under A Summer Moon’

First prize winner – Rachael Wenona Guy for
‘Little Otik at St John of God’

Comments from the judges…

Through their meticulous and courageous crafting of idea, feeling and the techniques of words on a page, these poems create impactful responses to quite different ideas and experiences associated with fire. In these poems, ‘poetry on fire’ might be seen as a crucible, the space in which the dross of experience is burned away leaving us free to see the thing that is essential, what really matters.

Our Highly Commended Prize was won by emerging poet E.Hikida for ‘Front Row Seats’ – a compelling poetic inhabitation of the experience of confronting a literal and immediate advancing fire. The poem skillfully avoids cliché and uses rhythm and image to bring the reader into the space of the apocalyptic.

Wes Lee’s ‘The World, A Brief Dream Under A Summer Moon,’ was awarded Second Prize. A gentle itemisation of the small elements of the everyday – what is observed, what is remembered, and what is imagined. A numbered poem, it lists an accumulation of the possible to stem the inexorability of time and illness, while also echoing the march of time’s relentless ‘metronome.’ The idea of fire here is subtle, referencing both childhood drawings and the charge of the imagination.

Rachael Guy’s winning poem, ‘Little Otik at St John of God,’ draws us into a richly textured but disturbing interiority through an interplay of folk tale, myth and an implied emotional state. In this prose poem a psychologically fragile self is represented as a stump of wood which, like in the folk tale it draws on, is subject to ‘milling.’ Here the goal is an ambiguous psychological healing where ‘[m]y old wood was being fed to the furnace’ of certain kinds of conformity. The poem’s compelling long lines, twists of perspective and otherworldly positioning of voice make it powerful and innovative.

Drum roll…. congratulations to the winners

The prompt for the 2026 Liquid Amber Poetry Prize, ‘Poetry on Fire’, stimulated a powerful response with diverse poems and stylistics – some flames literal, some metaphoric and allusive.

We have already celebrated our Longlist poets – our seven Shortlist poets – and our two Emerging Poet winners.

And now … huge congratulations to our highly commended and winning poets…..

Highly Commended – E. Hikida for ‘Front Row Seats’
Second prize – Wes Lee for ‘The World, A Brief Dream Under A Summer Moon’
First prize – Rachael Wenona Guy for ‘Little Otik at St John of God’

And to everyone who participated and sent a poem – fantastic effort – each poet crafting ideas is winner in their own way.

A huge thank-you to our 2026 judges: Rose Lucas, Ali Whitelock and Angela Costi.

See the 2026 Longlist

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

Best Poem by an Emerging Poet – Mentoring & Editing Pack with Rose Lucas and Angela Costi

Poetry on Fire: The Liquid Amber Prize Anthology

All the poems in the Longlist will be published in this year’s anthology Poetry on Fire: The Liquid Amber Prize Anthology, to be launched by Nathan Curnow at our Zoom Poetry Reading, 26 November 2026.

Buy the book - PREPUB OFFER softcover

Come to the launch - Zoom 26 Nov