Text graphic reading "National Youth Poetry Slam" with "National Youth" in large light green letters and "Poetry Slam" in smaller letters on a black background.
People in the audience expressing excitement and joy at an event in a dimly lit room with purple lighting.

STEP INTO THE ARENA

SPEAK YOUR TRUTH

SHATTER THE CEILING

JOIN US AT THE POETRY 

EVENT OF THE YEAR

Bankstown Poetry Slam proudly presents the fourth annual National Youth Poetry Slam featuring Genesis Owusu! NYPS is a one-night-only nationwide competition to find Australia's boldest and most urgent voices. Twenty fearless young poets from across Australia will reclaim the narrative with raw honesty, fierce imagination and stories drawn from the frontline of what it means to grow up in this moment.

These poets are not waiting to be heard. They are shaping the story now. From cultural identity to climate anxiety, from love to liberation, this stage becomes a battleground for perspectives that matter. One of them will walk away with the NYPS crown and $1,500, yet every voice here rings with the sound of Australia's future.

Show up. Listen closely. Leave changed for the better.

THE 2025 PROGRAM HAS NOW CLOSED.
STAY TUNED FOR THE 2026 NYPS EVENT.

OUR PARTNERS

The National Youth Poetry Slam is proudly presented in partnership with State Library of NSW and supported by Multicultural NSW and Sydney Writers' Festival.

Logo for the New South Wales State Library featuring a stylized question mark and the text 'STATE LIBRARY' and 'NEW SOUTH WALES'.
Logo for Multicultural NSW by the New South Wales Government, featuring a stylized lotus flower icon and text.
Logo for the Sydney Writers Festival featuring large black quotation mark and the event name in bold black text.

2025

WINNERS

Group of five diverse people standing on a stage with medals around their necks, smiling, at a poetry competition or event.
Audience members sitting in theater seats, clapping and watching a performance or presentation.
A diverse group of young people and adults posing on stage in front of a large screen that reads 'National Youth Poetry Slam.' They are smiling and standing together for a group photo. The stage has a wooden floor and a decorative rug in front of the group.

Dishita Bhattacharya

FIRST PLACE

Ibrahim Munir Ali

SECOND PLACE

Atoc Malou

THIRD PLACE

2025 ENTRY

TERMS & CONDITIONS

  • Any reference to “us” is a reference to Bankstown Poetry Slam.

    By entering the National Youth Poetry Slam 2025, you agree to the following terms and conditions:

    1. Participants must be aged 24 years of age and under (for the duration of the competition) and be residents of Australia in order to be eligible for entry. Participants under the age of 18 years must obtain parent or guardian permission to enter, and must be accompanied by a parent, supervisor or legal guardian over the age of 18 if they are successful in succeeding to the finale.

    2. This competition is for individual entrants only. Group performances will not be accepted.

    3. One video submission per person. Videos must only contain one piece of poetry.

    4. Videos must be no longer than 3:00 minutes in duration. There is no minimum duration.

    5. For an entry to be valid, the entrant must:

      1. Complete the entry form; and

      2. Ensure that the video submission in the entrant’s form is uploaded via a video as an Unlisted YouTube video (recommended), Google Drive link, or simply linking a public social media post that has your poem posted (for example, a public social media account).

    6. Entries must be made online before the submission deadline of 11:59 pm on Wednesday 1 October 2025.

    7. The participants will be judged on their performances by 5 judges, who will give each performance a score. The average of the scores will be calculated to determine the overall score of the participant. No less than 15, and no more than 20 of the top scoring participants from the online submissions will be invited to participate in the finale.

    8. Participants must be available for the finale on Thursday 27th November 2025. Finalists will be notified by no later than 30 October 2025 of their success in being a finalist, unless the competition is extended at our discretion, in which case we will notify you as soon as possible if you are a finalist.

    9. For the finale, finalists must have one poem prepared which will be no longer than 3 minutes in length. Anything longer performed on the night will have points deducted. The same poem may be performed for the submission and the finale.

    10. In entering, you guarantee to us that you own the complete, transferable rights to ALL elements of the submission. This includes but is not limited to text, audio, video, and images. 

    11. Poems must be original work. The entrant must not use any music, props or aid of Artificial Intelligence in the submission and performance at the finale. Any such use disqualifies the entrant.

    12. All finalists agree to participate in and cooperate with all reasonable media editorial requests, including but not limited to being interviewed and photographed, and the participants grant us a perpetual, non-exclusive licence to use such footage and photographs in all media worldwide and the finalists acknowledge and agree that they will not be entitled to any fee for such use.

    13. Finalists located outside metropolitan Sydney may be eligible for travel reimbursement. Rural NSW and interstate finalists will be supported with reimbursement of the reasonable costs of their flights and accommodation to attend the finale.

    usiness. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.