Wesley Michel Wright Prize

The Wesley Michel Wright Prize is an Australian poetry prize named in honour of Wesley Michel Wright in recognition of his bequest to the University of Melbourne. It is awarded annually.

History

Wesley Michel Wright graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1951. In his will he left a bequest to the university.^[1][2] Wright died in 1963^[3] and the award was subsequently inaugurated. The first known recipient was Leon Slade in 1962.^[4] John Tranter, Judy Johnson and Sarah Day have won twice.^[4] As of 2023^[update], the prize is valued at A$4,300.^[5]

Entry conditions

Entry is open to Australian citizens for a poem or poetry collection published in the previous twelve months. Poems to be from 50 to 500 lines long.^[2]

Winners

This list is drawn from the AustLit database:^[4]

Year	Winner(s)	Notes
1982	Leon Slade
1983	Alex Skovron	[6]
1984	— (no award)
1985	John Scott
	Frank Kellaway
1986	Philip Hodgins
1987	Diane Fahey
1988	Laurie Duggan
1989	David Herkt
	John Tranter
1990	Ken Bolton
1991	Jordie Albiston
	Jan Owen
1992	Peter Boyle
1993	John Tranter
1994	Dimitris Tsaloumas
1995	Bruce Beaver
1996	Thomas Shapcott
1997	Judith Beveridge
1998	Jean Kent
1999	Margaret Bradstock
2000	Judy Johnson
2001	Bronwyn Lea
2002	Martin Harrison
2003	Chris Andrews
2004	Sarah Day
2005	— (no award)
2006	— (no award)
2007	— (no award)
2008	Caroline Caddy	[7]
2009	Emily Ballou	[8]
2010	— (no award)
2011	Rosanna Licari	[9]
2012	A. Frances Johnson
2013	Judy Johnson	[10]
2014	Sarah Day	[11]
2015	— (no award)
2016	— (no award)
2017	Susan Fealy	[12]
2018	John Kinsella	[13]
2019	Kevin Brophy	[14]
2020	Zenobia Frost
2021	Jill Jones	[15]
2022	Lisa Gorton
2023	Stuart Barnes	[5]