The Newcastle Poetry Prize is an annual Australian award for Australian poetry.
It was established in 1981 as the Mattara Poetry Prize.
[1] The Prize began in September 1980 when Peter Goldman handed out an anthology of poetry at the Mattara Festival.
[1] This anthology prompted two lecturers at the University of Newcastle, Christopher Pollnitz and Paul Kavanagh, to seek funding for a poetry competition which paved the way for the first official Mattara Poetry Prize in 1981.
[1] Today the Prize receives entries from across the nation.