The Newcastle Poetry Prize is an annual Australian award for poetry. It was established in 1981 as the Mattara Poetry Prize.
The Prize began from humble beginnings in September 1980, when Peter Goldman stood in the middle of Civic Park during the Mattara Festival and handed out an anthology of poetry to passers-by. The A4 photocopied collection featured poems from local Hunter writers, with contributors ranging in age from six to eighty-one.
This anthology prompted two lecturers at the University of Newcastle, Christopher Pollnitz and Paul Kavanagh, to seek funding for a poetry competition which paved the way for the first official Mattara Poetry Prize in 1981. This prize gone on to become one of the richest and most prestigious poetry competitions in the country, and is now known as the Newcastle Poetry Prize.
Today the Prize is one of the major events of the literary calendar in Australia, bringing entries from across the nation. More recently the Newcastle Poetry Prize has included a New Media prize, creating a forum for the new technology poets in the country.
Initially sponsored by the Hunter Water Board, Newcastle City Council has provided funding via its Community Assistance Program since 1995, and the University of Newcastle has partnered with Council since 2004 to provide additional sponsorship.
In 2011, the Prize celebrated its 30th anniversary and marked the milestone with readings by distinguished previous winners including Les Murray, Anthony Lawrence, Mark Tredinnick, Diane Fahey, Philip Salom, Duncan Hose, Patricia Sykes, Peter Kirkpatrick and Brooke Emery. A special anniversary anthology, Completely Surrounded, was published by Puncher & Wattman.
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