The Poets XYZ Competition: Celebrating Poetry Written for Children
SLANZA is delighted to be collaborating with The Poets XYZ offering this online space to host their annual poetry competition winners and resources.
This collaboration underscores our shared commitment to foster reading for pleasure by nurturing the creation of high-quality poetry for children and providing a vibrant platform to celebrate this vital genre. By supporting poets who craft engaging verses for young minds, we're helping to lay the foundation for a lifelong love of reading.
Find out more about the XYZ Poets and their mahi here.
This collaboration underscores our shared commitment to foster reading for pleasure by nurturing the creation of high-quality poetry for children and providing a vibrant platform to celebrate this vital genre. By supporting poets who craft engaging verses for young minds, we're helping to lay the foundation for a lifelong love of reading.
Find out more about the XYZ Poets and their mahi here.
Big Things little things: Poetry for Children 2025 Competition Winners
The Poets XYZ (Melinda Szymanik, Elena de Roo and Kathryn Dove) are delighted to have the generous support of SLANZA for their annual competition for poets who write for children. The Poets XYZ have run the competition, backed by Phantom Billstickers and National Poetry Day, since 2023. The competition serves several purposes: giving recognition to poets who write for children, raising the profile of poetry for children and shining a spotlight on the form on New Zealand poetry’s national day. For a country of more than 5 million people, Aotearoa New Zealand has a strong adult poetry sector and the Poets XYZ would like to see this reflected in the children’s poetry sphere. They hope their competitions will encourage more people to see that children’s poetry is created here too. This year there were over 90 entries from across Aotearoa and the theme was BIG THINGS little things. The competition was judged by renowned children’s writer and poet, Bill Nagelkerke, and the posters designed by the immensely talented writer, poet and illustrator, Vasanti Unka. Below are the winning and honourably mentioned poems, with posters and resources available to download.
“Words, and especially words in poems, provide consolation and connection. As always, arriving at a competition winner has been difficult. The standard was very high. All the poems, by virtue of their choice of words and/or structure, have the potential to change or refine a reader’s perspective.” Bill Nagelkerke – 2025 The Poets XYZ Competition Judge
Thank you to National Poetry Day and Phantom Billstickers for their support for this event.
Read Bill Nagelkerke's Judges report here.
For more info email [email protected] or visit us on Facebook at The Poets XYZ
The Poets XYZ (Melinda Szymanik, Elena de Roo and Kathryn Dove) are delighted to have the generous support of SLANZA for their annual competition for poets who write for children. The Poets XYZ have run the competition, backed by Phantom Billstickers and National Poetry Day, since 2023. The competition serves several purposes: giving recognition to poets who write for children, raising the profile of poetry for children and shining a spotlight on the form on New Zealand poetry’s national day. For a country of more than 5 million people, Aotearoa New Zealand has a strong adult poetry sector and the Poets XYZ would like to see this reflected in the children’s poetry sphere. They hope their competitions will encourage more people to see that children’s poetry is created here too. This year there were over 90 entries from across Aotearoa and the theme was BIG THINGS little things. The competition was judged by renowned children’s writer and poet, Bill Nagelkerke, and the posters designed by the immensely talented writer, poet and illustrator, Vasanti Unka. Below are the winning and honourably mentioned poems, with posters and resources available to download.
“Words, and especially words in poems, provide consolation and connection. As always, arriving at a competition winner has been difficult. The standard was very high. All the poems, by virtue of their choice of words and/or structure, have the potential to change or refine a reader’s perspective.” Bill Nagelkerke – 2025 The Poets XYZ Competition Judge
Thank you to National Poetry Day and Phantom Billstickers for their support for this event.
Read Bill Nagelkerke's Judges report here.
For more info email [email protected] or visit us on Facebook at The Poets XYZ
Poets XYZ 2025 joint winner 'Size wise' by Philippa Werry
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Poets XYZ 2025 joint winner 'Peacock Mantis Shrimp' by Amanda McKenzie
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Poets XYZ 2025 Runner Up
Poets XYZ 2025 Honourably Mentioned:
Previous competition winners:
The Poets XYZ 2024 winning poem LEAP
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The Poets XYZ 2023 Winning Poem Drop by Drop
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