ESU Formal Verse Contest 2025

The ESU (Victoria Branch) is pleased to welcome entries for its second annual Formal Verse Contest. This year the lineup of prizes has been changed.

First prize: $5,000

Runner-up: $1,000

Best Entry by a Resident of the State of Victoria: $1,000 

President’s Choice: $1,000

Reader's Choice: $1,000

Theme: Australian Identity

Closing date: 15 October 2025

Final Judge: Dr Stephen McInerney

Please read the guidelines below carefully before submitting. 

The English-Speaking Union (Victoria Branch) (the “ESU”) was established in Melbourne in 1919. It is a non-government body, reliant on members, volunteers, supporters and donors to undertake and fund activities. Its mission is to shape the future by promoting the heritage, culture, identity and fellowship of the English-speaking peoples.

The ESU shares the outlook of Winston Churchill, former Chairman of the English-Speaking Union of the British Empire, in his A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956-58) in defining the English-speaking peoples as the people of the British Isles and their descendants who settled in countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America.

As a registered Australian charity, the ESU engages in and supports educational and cultural projects that relate to its mission.

The ESU invites entries for the ESU Formal Verse Contest 2025. The total prize money for the contest is $9,000. The author of the winning poem will receive $5,000, one runner-up will receive $1,000 and the best entry by a resident of Victoria (Australia) will receive $1,000. An additional award of $1,000 will be chosen by ESU President Robert Furlan. A Reader's Choice Award of $1,000 will be made to the shortlisted poem voted as the favourite by poetry lovers. With the exception of the Reader's Choice Award no poet shall be eligible for two awards. The final judge of the contest, excluding the President's Choice and of course the Reader's Choice, is poet Dr Stephen McInerney. Dr McInerney is the author of the poetry collections In Your Absence (2002) and The Wind Outside (2016) and is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for the Study of the Western Tradition at Campion College in Sydney.

The Contest is designed to highlight the rhythmic and musical potential of the English language. We define formal verse as metrical, rhymed or unrhymed, in a traditional or invented form, without restriction in regards to subject, idiom or inventiveness. Form in poetry is like the twelve-tone scale in music, infinitely variable in its limitations. This year (2025) the theme of the Contest is "Australian Identity". Poems should touch upon some aspect of Australian identity, life, culture, landscape, heritage etc. Poets, especially those outside Australia, are encouraged to use the theme as a springboard for the imagination.

1. Entry is free.
2. Entries must be in English.
3. The entry form (below) must be completed in full.
4. The ESU may use relevant material provided with the entry form for media and promotion.
5. By entering the Contest, the entrant agrees to participate in media publicity and promotion associated with the contest, including the publication of shortlisted and winning entries on the ESU website and the use of photos submitted or taken at any Awards presentation ceremony.
6. Proof of address may be required from the winner of the best entry by a Victorian (Australia) resident.
7. Entries close on 15 October 2025. The shortlist will be published in early November.
8. All award winners will be requested to acknowledge the ESU’s support in any future publication (print or online) of work submitted to the contest.
9. The decisions of the judging panel, the final judge, and the ESU President are final and no correspondence will be entered into.
10. Any questions about the Contest should be emailed to projects@esuvic.org.au

Entries should follow these guidelines:

1. The Contest is for poems of any subject demonstrating mastery of poetic form, music, rhythm and metre. They may be rhymed or unrhymed, in traditional or unique forms.
2. Poems must be written in English.
3. No more than two (2) poems per entrant.
4. Poems must be unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere until winners are announced.
5. Each poem must have a title.
6. Poems must be typed in a standard font in 12 point size.
7. Poems must not exceed 70 lines, not including stanza breaks or the title line.
8. Submit each poem(s) in word (.doc, .docx) or PDF (.pdf) file types.
9. The author’s name must NOT appear anywhere in the document or the document file name.

To facilitate blind judging and the de-identification of poems, the entry form must be completed in full.

Poems will be judged blind with the exception of the Reader's Choice Award. The ESU will select a shortlist of poems to be sent to the final judge, who will choose the Winner, the runner-up and the best Victorian entry. The President’s Choice award will be chosen by ESU President Robert Furlan. To facilitate the Reader's Choice Award the shortlisted poems will be published on the ESU website and readers given a reasonable period of time to vote for their favourite poem. With the exception of the Reader's Choice Award no poet shall be eligible to win two prizes.

Receipt of all entries will be automatically acknowledged upon submission.

All entrants will be notified of the outcome of the selection process. Shortlisted entrants and the winner/s will be featured on the ESU website.

Winners and all entrants will be invited to attend a presentation ceremony in Melbourne.

It is acknowledged that in administering the Contest, the English-Speaking Union (Victoria Branch) will need to collect personal information from the applicant. The ESU is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of individuals. Click HERE to read the ESU Privacy Policy.

Please note that our preferred method of correspondence is by email to projects@esuvic.org.au