WA Poets Inc 2025 Ros Spencer Poetry Prize Finalists

We are delighted to announce the finalists for the 2025 Ros Spencer Poetry Prize.
This year’s competition drew entries from across Australia and around the world, offering a rich and varied celebration of love in all its forms.

Our heartfelt thanks go to every poet who entered, and to our judge for their careful reading and thoughtful selections.

Introducing This Year’s Judge – Kevin Gillam

Kevin Gillam is a poet and cellist. He has performed with the WA Symphony and WA Arts Orchestras as well as on numerous occasions as a soloist. He works as a ‘cello teacher and is also the current Chairperson for the Out of the Asylum writing group.

Shortlist – Ros Spencer 2025

Things that are alived — Kim Kenyon (QLD)
Last Way (Monument to Fallen Jewish People in Minsk, Belarus) — Colleen Keating (NSW)
On-Blue Horses — Rosa Christian (QLD)
How to re-write a love poem — Tim Loveday (VIC)
A Rime Winter’s Eve — John Beeson (WA)
How to Become a Ghost — David Terelinck (QLD)

Longlist – Ros Spencer 202

Poem Title	Name	Place
4.59 on the Upfield Line	Hannah McCann	Victoria
A Morphine Benediction	Pasan Ganegama	WA
A Rime Winter’s Eve	John Beeson	WA
Acoustic Pain	Minney Richani	Queensland
After Dark	Veronica Troup	Victoria
All the Chests	Elizabeth Lewis	WA
Antipodean Dryad	Veronica Lake	WA
Aperture	Isi Unikowski	ACT
At Bangkok Airport	Jennifer Catalano	WA
Bending Mind To Otherwhere	Allan Padgett	WA
Blackberries	William I Reid	WA
Bloody Mary is a Kind of Doppelganger	Luka Buchanan	WA
Bumble	Shoshanna Rockman	Victoria
Burning guilty persuasion	Rebecca Heath	NSW
CARNATIONS	Susan Fealy	Victoria
Christ and the Soldier	Kay Cairns	WA
Chrysalis	Elizabeth Lewis	WA
Churn	Kathy Shortland-Jones	WA
Circle Stripes	Hemat Malak	NSW
Coffee with Doty	Bron Bateman	WA
Completion	Melancholy Valentine	WA
Conversations with my Mother	Roland Leach	WA
Cross Currents	Ellen SHELLEY	NSW
Curio	Colleen Keating	NSW
Driving the Pilbara	Elanna Herbert	NSW
earth is a song of dust & dry gumleaves	Carl Walsh	Victoria
Eating out	Bob Topping	Queensland
end of days at the casino	Beverley Anidjar	Queensland
Error Incognita	Kim Kenyon	Queensland
Father becomes Dementia	Jennifer Zimmer-Wilson	Victoria
Fluid	Dorit d’Scarlett	Queensland
Fondue Party	Veronica Lake	WA
Fucking Zeus	Mran-Maree	Victoria
Glass Blowers Go Blind	Jan Napier	WA
Glimpsed Through Your Glass	Ian Reid	WA
Grandfather Clock	Celine Ng	WA
Grief — Ever-Lasting Smile	Peter Mitchell	NSW
Grief in Oils	Tess Nikitenko	Tasmania
Haptic	Elizabeth Lewis	WA
Harrowing Climates — Sunday 27 February 2022 Flood, Lismore	Peter Mitchell	NSW
Her black blouse	Mohammad Ali Al-Ashqar	NSW
Horror	Amber Wieland	Queensland
How to Become a Ghost	David Terelinck	Queensland
How to rewrite a love poem	Tim Loveday	Victoria
Howl 2025	Sam McConochie	Queensland
I, John Clare	Christopher Konrad	WA
Inheritance	SoulReserve	WA
Into the Unknown	Giles Watson	WA
it could be you	Loretta Henry	Queensland
karkharias	Kathy Shortland-Jones	WA
King of Ghosts	Magdalena Ball	NSW
LA Story / Inside the screen	Gail Robinson	Victoria
Lagrange Point	Lake	WA
Lambswool, alpaca and a thread of mohair	Soulo	WA
Last Way (Monument to Fallen Jewish People in Minsk, Belarus)	Colleen Keating	NSW
Last Words	Kay Cairns	WA
Loss	Patricia Stratton	WA
Nightshade in a petri dish	Paris Rosemont	NSW
Okavango Delta	Barbara Stapleton	WA
On the day David Malouf Personally Edited my Copy of An Open Book	David Terelinck	Queensland
On—Blue Horses	Rosa Christian	Queensland
Overdose	Amber Wieland	Queensland
Package	Allan Boyd	WA
People Didn’t Go into the Desert; the Desert Came to People	B. R. Dionysius	Queensland
Red Horizons and Iron Dust	E.Q. Lean	SA
Sea Sonnets from Swansea Heads and Sussex Inlet	Jennifer Harrison	Victoria
Social Commentary on a Political Monster	A R Levett	WA
Steadfastly Blue	Luka Buchanan	WA
Submission Sestina	Glen Hunting	NT
tebrakunna tension headache	Chloe Mayne	Tasmania
The 100th Annual Practice	Wing Yau	Victoria
The Aery Dragonflies	Andrew Lansdown	WA
The Forest Knows Where Grief Goes	Emily Nicole Perry	SA
The Human Heart is 73% Water	David Terelinck	Queensland
The mattress	Soulo	WA
The Other as a Papier-mache Horse	B. R. Dionysius	Queensland
The Road to Applecross	Lorraine Gibson	NSW
The writer who failed to leave her Cabin in the Hills	Angela Costi	Victoria
They Are Snatching the Coins From Our Eyes	Lake	WA
things that are alived	Kim Kenyon	Queensland
This is a Recipe	Elizabeth Walton	NSW
Those who were seen dancing	Vivienne Glance	WA
Tidings	Jessica Elsea	WA
Tipping Point	Siobhan Hodge	WA
Two Waters Rising	Ross Belton	WA
Upwards and Unbounded	Rhian Healy	WA
visitation	Mran-Maree	Victoria
where her father walked	Colleen Keating	NSW
Your Poignant Stillness	Mark Liston	NSW

Closing Note

Congratulations to all poets whose work appears on the longlist and shortlist. Your voices enrich our community, and we look forward to celebrating your contributions in person.

Please join us for the Poetry d’Amour Awards Night, part of the Perth Poetry Festival 2025—a stirring evening of recognition, readings, and connection.

When: Thursday, 28 August 2025, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm
Where: City of Perth Library, 573 Hay Street, Perth WA 6000

This free, accessible event will also feature the Ros Spencer Poetry Award longlist and shortlist, and the launch of our Full Circle Pathways Chapbook.

Reserve your spot now at the WA Poets Presents: WA Poets Awards Night & Pathways Chapbook Launch event page. If you’re attending the Festival’s Gala the next evening, it promises even more powerful performances and communal celebration.

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