Australian Poetry Slam

Australian Poetry Slam Australian Poetry Slam is an international performing writers’ program focused on empowering people. We ask that you act responsibly and courteously here.

Australian Poetry Slam is a live literary performance program where the audience decides the champion. With a nationwide round of 60 heats, the best slammers will perform for the chance to win the Australian Poetry Slam National Final as part of Story Week. Australian Poetry Slam began in 2005 and has since grown into an internationally renowned poetry slam. APS inspires over 1000 spoken word arti

sts annually to bring their words from all corners of the globe to an audience of over 20,000 within the Asia-Pacific region. As one of the largest initiatives of Word Travels, the International Performing Writers' Centre, APS touches rural and urban communities in Australia, China, Indonesia and New Zealand, inspiring a love of poetry and catapulting spoken word artists onto an international stage. Catch the raw and witty, vulnerable and downright gritty voices of the world's best wordsmiths, live at Australian Poetry Slam. COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

Word Travels appreciates our passionate community and encourages members to share their writing and performances. We seek to maintain a friendly online environment where all members feel encouraged and safe in sharing their art. To ensure this we won’t tolerate:
- Inflammatory, offensive, racist, vulgar, or hateful comments, links or images.
- Comments that threaten or defame any person or organisation.
- Solicitations, advertisements, or endorsements of any financial, commercial organisations.
- Multiple successive off-topic posts by a single user.
- Repetitive posts copied and pasted or duplicated by single or multiple users.
- Offensive, inaccurate, false, misleading or deceptive comments or content.
- Material which infringes third party intellectual property rights.
- Any other inappropriate content or comments as determined by Word Travels’ discretion. Some handy tips:
📚 Please keep your posts and comments relevant to writing and performance
💭 Not every post submitted will appear on the page. Admins may choose not to allow a post if it’s repetitive or violates community guidelines.
👀 If you see something that you personally disagree with, that’s ok! We’re happy to facilitate debates and discussions here. Feel free to engage respectfully or scroll on by. However, if you feel the comment or post breaks our community guidelines, please use Facebook Report to notify the admins.
👋 This group is managed by Word Travels admins. We work hard to ensure it remains a fun, vibrant and safe space. We do not allow repetitive or trolling comments. This behavour will result in a warning or ban. Word Travels reserves the right to remove comments, ban users and turn off commenting on posts. Users who do not comply with this policy will be blocked from the page following Word Travels’ discretion. If you have any questions about this policy, please send a private message to this page.

22/03/2026

All love to Rhoda Roberts and family. Rest in peace Queen.

Thank you students in Bathurst! We had a great time!
19/03/2026

Thank you students in Bathurst! We had a great time!

09/01/2026

Adelaide Festival you are broken. You’ve attempted to shut down public conversation by canceling Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah’s appearance.

You’ve done the opposite.

APS and Word Travels stand with the AF boycott.

Censorship of a respected, lauded writer is not the solution. Open discourse is.

BE BRAVER.

Reinstate Dr. Abdel-Fattah’s appearance now.

15/12/2025

Ambassador Program APPLY NOW THE WHY BECOME A Poetry in Education AMBASSADOR Qualities of an Ambassador  Experiences of... Read more.

Before we close up for the year, we HAD to share these glorious photos from the Australian Poetry Slam Queensland Final ...
11/12/2025

Before we close up for the year, we HAD to share these glorious photos from the Australian Poetry Slam Queensland Final 🔥🙌

Queensland has such a strong slam community, we love getting to see their two top poets at the National Final every year 😍

Next time you're in the sunshine state, check out what's happening in the spoken word and storytelling scenes 🎙

Everyday is giving day not just on Tuesday! Word Travels employs a team of diverse people to create and produce story sh...
02/12/2025

Everyday is giving day not just on Tuesday!

Word Travels employs a team of diverse people to create and produce story sharing activities particularly in country towns, where being a person of colour or speaking your mother tongue can feel incredibly isolating.

Through Australian Poetry Slam, First Nations people, new migrants, LGBTQA+, young people and people from remote communities bypass all the gatekeepers. They command a room with their words.

Where can you see people who aren’t being represented? How can you amplify their voices? How are you handing the mic to the person next to you, listening and creating pathways for new diverse cultural leaders?

Can you support Word Travels?


Where can you see people who aren’t being represented? How can you amplify their voices? How are you handing the mic to the person next to you, listening and creating pathways for new diverse cultural leaders?

'When Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa walked into her first open mic in Perth, she didn't know she was entering a poetry slam — one ...
18/11/2025

'When Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa walked into her first open mic in Perth, she didn't know she was entering a poetry slam — one that would lead her to the Sydney Opera House where she would talk about her body hair...It landed her in the national final of the Australian Poetry Slam at the Opera House in 2014, setting her career in the arts in motion.'

We love to see former APS finalists killing it! Kudos to Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa for all her recent achievements, her book Fully Sikh: Hot Chips and Turmeric Stains published this year, and her flourishing career in the arts 🙌

This year, Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa earned an Order of Australia medal and published her first book, Fully Sikh, all while running an indie theatre in Perth.

For the second year in a row, the APS NSW State Final took place in the newest room of the State Library of NSW, and we ...
07/11/2025

For the second year in a row, the APS NSW State Final took place in the newest room of the State Library of NSW, and we absolutely loved filling up the venue with poets and poetry lovers!

This year's NSW Final had TWO winners, as Lamisa Siddique and Kaitlyn O'Connor tied for first place.

The NSW Final featured Rachael Williams, who won the same final in 2024, and was hosted by DEFNE with music from Abe Irhia (DJ ABE).

We ran more Sydney heats than ever in this year's Australian Poetry Slam, and the poets of the city showed up and came t...
04/11/2025

We ran more Sydney heats than ever in this year's Australian Poetry Slam, and the poets of the city showed up and came through!

Hosted by Dai Moret and featuring the musical stylings of Jayden Kitchener-Waters, the Sydney Final of the Australian Poetry Slam filled up Customs House for a magical evening 🙌

A HUGE round of applause to every finalist who made it to the Australian Poetry Slam National Final on Sunday! 👏👏👏Everyo...
29/10/2025

A HUGE round of applause to every finalist who made it to the Australian Poetry Slam National Final on Sunday! 👏👏👏

Everyone in attendance was blown away by the quality of every single performance, and it was amazing to see every state and territory represented with such talent.

Thank you to all the existing slam communities and lobrary teams who organised, hosted and collaborated on heats around the country to find the best poets to represent them at the Sydney Opera House.

Shoutout to Spoken Word SA - South Australia, Perth Slam, Red Dirt Poetry Australia, Canberra Slam, Enough Said Poetry Slam, West Side Poetry Slam, Bread and Butter Poetry Slam and many more 🖤

Photographer: Nicola Bailey

CONGRATULATIONS to our 2025 Australian Poetry Slam-bassador: Arantza Garcia! 👑Hailing from Norwood, SA, Arantza won the ...
26/10/2025

CONGRATULATIONS to our 2025 Australian Poetry Slam-bassador: Arantza Garcia! 👑

Hailing from Norwood, SA, Arantza won the South Australia State Final, and her poem that won her the National Final, 'An Ode to Her', was about the strength and versatility of her femininity, reclaiming and re-defining it through the strong examples of her friends, family and tias.

A well-deserved win, Peruvian poet Arantza will receive a prize pack worth $20k that includes international touring of her spoken word, publications and mentoring opportunities.

Congratulations to the runners up and well done to all the poets who made it to the National Final and entered the competition around the country this year.

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International Performing Writers' Centre, Lvl 2, 101-111 William Street, Darlinghurst
Sydney, NSW
2010

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