Coleridge says that “prose = words in their best order” and “poetry = the best words in their best order”.

Word selection is paramount in poetry writing. In a poem, a word is weighted against the words that sit next to it. Words shift and rearrange their meaning to accommodate, or pique, their fellows. An ill chosen word in a poem stares balefully out as a glaring mistake. It doesn’t matter if it’s the extra syllable you’ve squeezed into the last line of your limerick, or if it’s a redundancy in your free verse – word choice is everything.

This year’s NYWM theme is Find Your Words, and with our interviews with some of Australia’s best young poets by Izzy Roberts-Orr, we hope we can help you find yours. We also have some helpful resources, competitions and events to spur you on.

Events and Opportunities

This competition, based in Melbourne at the Australian Catholic University, is open to all residents of Australia. With the theme of Peace, Tolerance and Understanding, the ACU Poetry Prize invites participants to consider poetry as a means of spreading acceptance. The competition closes on the 16^th of June.

This is one for those out West – The Randolph Stow Young Writers Award is a competition organised by the Geraldton Regional Library.  The award encourages the young creatives of Western Australia to submit their prose and poetry for a chance to win a cash prize. Due June 19, check the website for further details.

Before you submit your entries, maybe you’d like to scope the Voiceworks Editorial Committee’s advice on how to improve your poetry? The EdComm are well versed (sorry, bad poetry joke) in selecting the very best poems to feature in Voiceworks, so take heed.

A reminder: if you’d like to see your poem in Voiceworks #102, the submission deadline for the next issue is August 30.

The WB Yeats Poetry Prize – open to all Australians – will be holding a day-long event at the State Library of Victoria on June 13, commemorating the 150^th birthday of venerated poet W.B Yeats.

Have you ever noticed how when your favourite books are stacked up, they create beautiful, abstracted poems? This is spine poetry! Share your spine poems with #NYWM15 on twitter or Instagram.