Best of Australian Poems is an annual anthology collecting previously published and unpublished poems to create a poetic snapshot and barometer of the year that was. Capturing the richness and diversity of Australian poetry, across a timeframe of 1 July 2022 - 1 August 2023, the series, now in its third year, will explore how poetic responses to the contemporary moment develop with each passing year. The 2023 book opens with an introduction by its editors, highly respected poets and editors Gig Ryan and Panda Wong. Gig is one of the country's most highly recognised and read poets, with major awards for her poetry over decades, and with a prominent publication profile both here and overseas. Panda, alongside being an emerging poet and editor, is a performer who also works in digital/virtual spaces. Previous editors of this prestigious series have been Ellen van Neerven and Toby Fitch (2021) and Jeanine Leane and Judith Beveridge (2022).The Best of Australian Poems (BoAP) series is published by Australia's national poetry organisation, Australian Poetry, and will feature two different guest editors each year, to amplify the range of voices selected. It is funded by the Australia Council for the Arts and individual patrons.

This is the first of a new series, offering a poetic snapshot of the year that was, 1 July 2020-30 June 2021--featuring 100 poets and 100 poems across an astonishing range of poetic voice, approaches and themes.

"No props. No music. No costumes. Just you, your words and a mic-you've got two minutes to make the crowd scream your name. Miles Merrill, spoken word artist and founder of Australian Poetry Slam, and award-winning teacher Narcisa Nozica will take you from novice to spoken word superstar in no time. Twenty years after Merrill introduced poetry slams to Australia, there’s a national competition with a live audience of 20 000 people, and it’s taught in schools across the country. It’s been nothing short of a revolution! With tips from stars of the Australian poetry slam scene, including bestselling author Maxine Beneba Clarke, Slam Your Poetry provides step-by-step instructions and exercises that will inspire you to: 1. Write a poem that pops 2. Rehearse like a winner 3. Wow your audience 4. Beat stage fright 5. Run a winning competition for your school or community group Part how-to guide, part masterclass, part manifesto, this book will help teachers, students and wannabe spoken word artists of all ages slam like a pro."

'A very fine anthology, with exemplary introductions. It is refreshing to see how much has been done so well.' - Peter Pierce Wide in scope and bold in ambition, this exciting anthology covers the range of Australian poetic achievement, from early colonial verse through to contemporary work, with a strong recognition of Indigenous voices. This collection brings together great and familiar names with those that deserve better recognition. Including valuable introductory essays by John Kinsella, and biographical notes for all the poets, The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry presents the full measure of Australian poetic talent in all its richness and diversity.

Paul Kelly’s songs are steeped in poetry. And now he has gathered from around the world the poems he loves – poems that have inspired and challenged him over the years, a number of which he has set to music. This wide-ranging and deeply moving anthology combines the ancient and the modern, the hallowed and the profane, the famous and the little known, to speak to two of literature’s great themes that have proven so powerful in his music: love and death – plus everything in between. Here are poems by Yehuda Amichai, W.H. Auden, Tusiata Avia, Hera Lindsay Bird, William Blake, Bertolt Brecht, Constantine Cavafy, Alison Croggon, Mahmoud Darwish, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Ali Cobby Eckermann, James Fenton, Thomas Hardy, Kevin Hart, Gwen Harwood, Seamus Heaney, Philip Hodgins, Homer, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Langston Hughes, John Keats, Ono No Komachi, Maxine Kumin, Philip Larkin, Li-Young Lee, Norman MacCaig, Paula Meehan, Czeslaw Milosz, Les Murray, Pablo Neruda, Sharon Olds, Ovid, Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Porter, Rumi, Anne Sexton, William Shakespeare, Izumi Shikibu, Warsan Shire, Kenneth Slessor, Wislawa Szymborska, Máire Mhac an tSaoi, Ko Un, Walt Whitman, Judith Wright, W.B. Yeats and many more.

This book is an anthology of my past 2 years of poem writing. It includes some of my well known poems as well as those that are lesser known, all from my website thepoeticunderground.tumblr.com.

A special collection of poems written with a desire to give dignity and voice to those often shamed and ostracised, particularly by religion.