The Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry is awarded annually as part of the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for a book of collected poems or for a single poem of substantial length published in book form.^[1] It is named after Kenneth Slessor (1901–1971).

The prize currently comes with a A$30,000 cash award.^[1]

Winners and shortlists

2023

• Winner: Kim Cheng Boey – The Singer and Other Poems^[2]
• Adam Aitken – Revenants
• Pam Brown – Stasis Shuffle
• Lisa Gorton – Miribilia
• Sarah Holland-Batt – The Jaguar
• Marjon Mossammaparast – And to Ecstacy

2022

• Winner: Dan Disney – accelerations & inertias^[3]
• Eunice Andrada – TAKE CARE^[4]
• Evelyn Araluen – Dropbear
• Eileen Chong – A Thousand Crimson Blooms
• John Kinsella – Supervivid Depastoralism
• Bella Li – Theory of Colours

2021

• Winner: Ellen van Neerven – Throat^[5][6]
• Jordie Albiston – Element: The Atomic Weight & Radius of Love ^[7]
• Rebecca Jessen – Ask Me About the Future
• Jill Jones – A History of What I’ll Become
• Jaya Savige – Change Machine 

2020

• Winner: Peter Boyle – Enfolded in the Wings of a Great Darkness^[8][9]
• Joanne Burns – apparently
• Zenobia Frost – After the Demolition
• Lisa Gorton – Empirical
• Natalie Harkin – Archival-Poetics
• David Malouf – An Open Book

2019

• Winner: Judith Bishop – Interval^[10][11]
• Michael Farrell – I Love Poetry
• Penelope Layland – Things I’ve Thought To Tell You Since I Saw You Last
• Philip Neilsen – Wildlife of Berlin
• Mark Reid – Blindside
• Chris Wallace-Crabbe – Rondo

2018

• Winner: Bella Li – Argosy^[12]
• Adam Aitken – Archipelago
• Jordie Albiston – Euclid's dog: 100 algorithmic poems
• Rico Craig – Bone Ink
• Nguyễn Tiên Hoàng – Captive and Temporal
• Omar Sakr – These Wild Houses

2017

• Winner: Peter Boyle – Ghostspeaking^[13]
• Paul Hetherington – Burnt Umber
• Jill Jones – Breaking the Days
• Antigone Kefala – Fragments
• John Kinsella – Firebreaks: Poems
• Ellen van Neerven – Comfort Foot

2016

• Winner: Joanne Burns – brush^[14]
• Lionel Fogarty – Eelahroo (Long Ago), Nyah (Looking), Möbö-Möbö (Future)
• Sarah Holland-Batt – The Hazards
• Meredith Wattison – terra bravura
• Chloe Wilson – Not Fox Nor Axe
• Ouyang Yu – Fainting

2015

• Winner: David Malouf – Earth Hour^[15]
• Michael Aiken – A Vicious Example
• Judith Beveridge – Devadatta's Poems
• Anne Elvey – Kin
• Libby Hart – Wild
• John Mateer – Unbelievers, or The Moor

2014

• Winner: Fiona Hile – Novelties, Hunter^[16]
• Justin Clemens – The Mundiad, Hunter
• Diane Fahey – The Stone Garden: poems from Clare, Clouds of Magellan
• Liam Ferney – Boom, Grand Parade Poets
• Kate Middleton – Ephemeral Waters, Giramondo Publishing
• Jessica Wilkinson – Marionette: A biography of Miss Marion Davies, Vagabond Press

2013

• Winner: Ali Cobby-Eckermann – Ruby Moonlight, Magabala Books^[17]
• Kate Fagan – First Light, Giramondo Publishing
• Michael Farrell – Open Sesame, Giramondo Publishing
• Anthony Lawrence – The Welfare of my Enemy, Puncher & Wattman
• Kate Lilley – Ladylike, UWA Publishing
• Vivian Smith – Here, There and Elsewhere, Giramondo Publishing

2012

• Winner: Gig Ryan – New and Selected Poems, Giramondo Publishing^[18]
• Ken Bolton – Sly Mongoose, Puncher and Wattman
• Susan Hawthorne – Cow, Spinifex Press
• John Mateer – Southern Barbarians, Giramondo Publishing
• Claire Potter – Swallow, Five Islands Press
• Tracy Ryan – The Argument, Fremantle Press

2011

• Winner: Jennifer Maiden – Pirate Rain, Giramondo Publishing^{[citation needed]}
• Susan Bradley Smith – Supermodernprayerbook, Salt Publishing
• Andy Jackson – Among The Regulars, Papertiger Media Inc
• Jill Jones – Dark Bright Doors, Wakefield Press Pty
• Anna Kerdijk Nicholson – Possession, Five Island Press
• Andy Kissane – Out to Lunch, Puncher and Wattmann

2010

• Winner: Jordie Albiston – The Sonnet According to "M"^{[citation needed]}
• Emily Ballou – The Darwin Poems
• Judith Beveridge – Storm and Honey
• Emma Jones – The Striped World
• Morgan Yasbincek – White Camel

2009

• Winner: LK Holt – Man Wolf Man, John Leonard Press.^{[citation needed]}
• Michael Brennan – Unanimous Night, Salt Publishing
• David Brooks – The Balcony, University of Queensland Press
• Sarah Holland-Batt – Aria, University of Queensland Press
• Kerry Leves – A Shrine To Lata Mangeshkar, Puncher & Wattman
• Alan Wearne – The Australian Popular Songbook, Giramondo

2008

• Winner: Kathryn Lomer – Two Kinds of Silence^{[citation needed]}
• Joanne Burns – an illustrated history of dairies
• Brook Emery – Uncommon Light
• Peter Kirkpatrick – Westering
• David Malouf – Typewriter Music
• Phyllis Perlstone – The Edge of Everything

2007

• Winner: John Tranter – Urban Myths, University of Queensland Press^{[citation needed]}
• Robert Adamson – The Goldfinches of Baghdad, Flood Editions
• Laurie Duggan – The Passenger, University of Queensland Press
• Les Murray – The Biplane Houses, Black Inc.
• Simon West – First Names, Puncher and Wattmann
• Fay Zwicky – Picnic, Giramondo Publishing Company

2006

• Winner: Jaya Savige – Latecomers, University of Queensland Press.^{[citation needed]}
• Aidan Coleman – Avenues & Runways, Brandl & Schlesinger
• Susan Hampton – The Kindly Ones, Five Islands Press
• Jill Jones – Broken/Open, Salt Publishing
• Penelope Layland – Suburban Anatomy, Pandanus Books
• David McCooey – Blister Pack, Salt Publishing

2005

• Winner: Samuel Wagan Watson – Smoke Encrypted Whispers, University of Queensland Press^{[citation needed]}
• M. T. C. Cronin – < More or Less Than> 1–100, Shearsman Books Ltd
• Lidija Cvetkovic – War is Not the Season for Figs, University of Queensland Press
• John Kinsella – Doppler Effect, Salt Publishing
• Dipti Saravanamuttu – The Colosseum, Five Islands Press
• Alan Wearne – The Lovemakers Book Two: Money and Nothing, ABC Books

2004

• Winner: Pam Brown – Dear Deliria: New & Selected Poems, Salt Publishing^{[citation needed]}
• Jordie Albiston – The Fall, White Crane Press
• M. T. C. Cronin – beautiful, unfinished Salt Publishing
• Brook Emery – Misplaced Heart, Five Islands Press
• Philip Hammial – In the Year of Our Lord Slaughter's Children, Island Press
• John Tranter – Studio Moon, Salt Publishing

2003

• Winner: Jill Jones – Screens Jets Heaven^{[citation needed]}
• Alison Croggon – Attempts at Being
• Kate Lilley – Versary
• Emma Lew – Anything the Landlord Touches
• Sarah Day – New and Selected Poems
• Robert Gray – Afterimages

2002

• Winner: Alan Wearne – The Lovemakers, Penguin Books Australia^{[citation needed]}
• Robert Adamson – Mulberry Leaves: New & Selected Poems: 1970–2001, Paper Bark Press
• Martin Harrison – Summer, Paper Bark Press
• Dorothy Hewett – Halfway Up the Mountain, Fremantle Arts Centre Press
• Bronwyn Lea – Flight Animals, University of Queensland Press
• Gig Ryan – Heroic Money, Brandl & Schlesinger
• John Tranter – Ultra, Brandl & Schlesinger

2001

• Winner: Ken Taylor – Africa, Five Islands Press^{[citation needed]}
• Jennifer Compton – Blue, Ginninderra Press
• Brook Emery – and dug my fingers in the sand, Five Islands Press
• Philip Hammial – Bread, Black Pepper
• J. S. Harry – Sun Shadow, Moon Shadow, Vagabond Press
• Wendy Jenkins – Rogue Equations, Fremantle Arts Centre Press

2000

• Winner: Jennifer Maiden – Mines, Paper Bark Press/Australian Humanities Research Foundation^{[citation needed]}
• Richard James Allen – Thursday's Fictions, Five Islands Press
• M. T. C. Cronin – Everything Holy, Balcones International Press
• Jennifer Harrison – Dear B, Black Pepper
• Kevin Hart – Wicked Heat, Paper Bark Press
• John Millett – Iceman, Five Islands Press

1999 and before

Award winners:^[19]

• 1999: Lee Cataldi – Race Against Time, Penguin Books Australia
• 1998: no awards were presented
• 1997: Anthony Lawrence – The Viewfinder, University of Queensland Press
• 1996: Eric Beach – Weeping for Lost Babylon, HarperCollins and J. S. Harry – Selected Poems, Penguin Books Australia
• 1995: Peter Boyle – Coming Home From the World, Five Islands Press
• 1994: Barry Hill – Ghosting William Buckley, William Heinemann Australia
• 1993: Les Murray – Translations from the Natural World, Isabella Press
• 1992: Elizabeth Riddell – Selected Poems, Collins Angus & Robertson
• 1991: Jennifer Maiden – The Winter Baby, Collins Angus & Robertson
• 1990: Robert Adamson – The Clean Dark, Paper Bark Press
• 1989: John Tranter – Under Berlin, University of Queensland Press
• 1988: Judith Beveridge – The Domesticity of Giraffes, Black Lightning Press
• 1987: Philip Hodgins – Blood and Bone, Angus & Robertson
• 1986: Robert Gray – Selected Poems 1963–83, Angus & Robertson
• 1985: Kevin Hart – Your Shadow, Angus & Robertson
• 1984: Les Murray – The People's Otherworld, Angus & Robertson^[20]
• 1983: Vivian Smith – Tide Country, Angus & Robertson^[21]
• 1982: Fay Zwicky – Kaddish and Other Poems, University of Queensland Press^[22]
• 1981: Alan Gould – Astral Sea, Angus & Robertson^[23]
• 1980: David Campbell – Man in the Honeysuckle, Angus & Robertson^[24]