Webb-Pullman Poetry Award
Webb-Pullman Family 30 April, 2025
Entries are now open for the second Mercedes Webb-Pullman Poetry Award, which in 2025 will again be $500 NZD.
In honour of Mercedes’ support for Palestinian rights, her passionate resistance to injustice, and in light of the current genocide in Gaza, the topic for this year’s award is RESISTANCE.
Entries are invited from writers resident in New Zealand, Australia and Palestine of one previously-unpublished poem per entrant, with a word count not exceeding 430 words.
Closing date for entries is 28 September, 2025, the 25th anniversary of the Second Intifada in Palestine, the 126th anniversary of NZ’s parliamentary vote to send troops to South Africa in support of Britain’s colonialist war, and the 42nd anniversary of the death of Aboriginal man John Peter Pat’s death in police custody in Roeburn, Western Australia.
Five finalists will be selected and advised by 29 November 2025, International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, and invited to submit a video of a reading their entry, to be posted on the Award Youtube channel. All finalists will receive a copy of one of Mercedes’ books.
The winner and runners-up of the award will be announced on 9 December 2025, the 38th anniversary of the First Intifada in Palestine, and of the 107th anniversary of the Surafend massacre committed by New Zealand and Australian soldiers in Palestine.
In addition to the main award of $500, there will be a second prize – if English-speaking, a copy of Mahmoud Darwish’s Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: selected poems; if Arabic-speaking, a copy of Abdallah Abulaban’s Women in the Sun, co-winner of the 2024-2025 Palestine Cultural Awards – Ghassan Kanafani Award for Literature.
All poems entered for the award remain confidential, anonymous, and internal during the judging process.
Two copies of each entry are required:
1) The first copy must be submitted as one PDF file and contain a Title Page with author’s name, address, personal e-mail address, and telephone number. The poem file name format must be: Author last name_author first name_poem title. Eg plath_sylvia_mad girls love song If no title, please use the first line of the poem as the title. Eg plath_sylvia_you might as well haul up
2) The second copy must be a “blind” copy (PDF file) with the title and poem only on the Title Page. All identifying information must be removed or redacted within the file. The file name for this copy must be the title of the poem only.
Resist genocide and injustice, past and present, and send your entry to: Email address: m.webbpullman.poetry.award@gmail.com
Subject: Mercedes Webb-Pullman Poetry Award 2024 – RESISTANCE
Media Contacts – not for publication m.webbpullman.poetry.award@gmail.com
Michael Webb-Pullman +61418601973 Julie Webb-Pullman +61420370685
