Caselberg International Poetry Prize
The Caselberg Trust will soon be calling for entries for the 2025 Caselberg Trust International Poetry Competition. Now in its 15th year, the Trust is delighted to announce that Dunedin’s finest book shop – the University Book Shop is supporting the poetry prize again this year, and will also host our awards night to coincide with the publication of Landfall 250 Spring 2025. Thank you to everyone at the University Book Shop for your ongoing support.
The competition opens Sunday 1 June and closes on Monday 30 June 2025. Entries are judged blind. First Prize is $600 (plus one-week stay at the Caselberg house at Broad Bay, Dunedin). Second Prize is $300; and there are up to 5 Highly-Commended awards (no monetary prizes).
The first- and second-placed poems will be published in the November issue of Landfall, and all winning and highly-commended entries will appear on the Caselberg Trust website (copyright remaining with the authors).
This year’s Judge is Robert sullivan
Robert (Ngāpuhi, Kāi Tahu, Irish) is the author and editor of fifteen books—mainly poetry, as well as a graphic novel Maui Legends of the Outcast illustrated by Chris Slane and Weaving Earth and Sky, a New Zealand Post Children's Book of the Year, which was illustrated by Gavin Bishop. He co-edited, with Albert Wendt and Reina Whaitiri, the anthologies of Polynesian poetry in English, Whetu Moana and Mauri Ola, and an anthology of Māori poetry with Reina Whaitiri, Puna Wai Kōrero. He co-edited with Janet Newman Koe: An Aotearoa ecopoetry anthology (Otago University Press, 2024).
He co-edits The Journal of New Zealand Literature with Dr Erin Mercer, is President of the NZ Poetry Society, and has served on many literature advisory and judging panels. His most recent book is Hopurangi / Songcatcher published by AUP in 2024 which is shortlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards 2025 Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry. His most recent work is published in Landfall 248, and forthcoming in issue 7 of Peripheries (Harvard University Press) guest-edited by Jessica Wilkinson.
Entry information
Submissions open on 1 June and close on 30 June 2025 5pm NZT.
Up to two poems from any one entrant will be accepted.
Poems must be the original work of the entrant, previously unpublished, and not submitted elsewhere.
Poems must be no more than 40 lines in length.
Entries must be typewritten, and each poem should be laid out on a word document and submitted using the online submission form. Any style or subject will be considered.
The poet’s name must not appear on the typescript.
Submission and entry fee
Entries can only be accepted via the online form.
Entry fee: $20NZD for up to two poems.
Entry fees should be paid at the time of submission of your entry, using the unique code generated by the online form as a reference.
Where payments are not received by 5pm Monday 30 June (NZT), poems will not be submitted for judging.
Correspondance
No entries received after Monday 3o June 2025 will be considered and due to the volume of entries we can not accept amendments or enter into correspondance about submissions.
Winners only will be notified of their success.
A copy of the Judge’s report will be posted on our website, and as always, the Judge’s decisions will be final, and no correspondence will be entered into.