Building Australia's First Youth Poet Laureate Program

Watch the future of Australian poetry unfold.

Earlier today, Creative Australia announced that its Creative Futures Fund will support Red Room to explore and pilot a National Youth Poet Laureate project. We are delighted that our proposal caught their imagination and now there is a headwind behind the project.

Since the Creative Futures Fund announcement covers many projects, we, at Red Room, want to create this space to say a little more about our ambition.

First of all, what the devil is a ‘poet laureate’? A number of countries, including the UK, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and United States select a leading poet to be a sort of voice of the nation for a set term. The word ‘laureate’ has its roots in Ancient Greece. It’s a little pompous, perhaps, but poets deserve more respect, so I’m not inclined to quibble with it.

How poet laureates work and operate varies from country to country. Australia is joining those ranks with its inaugural poet laureate later this year — and I’m excited to see how that unfolds.

Some of those countries, including the USA, also support a Youth Poet Laureate to represent young people. Few of us can forget the image of Amanda Gorman, then National Youth Poet Laureate (USA), performing at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. For the millions of viewers around the world, the concept was simple - a young poet reads their work to the President, the nation, and the world. Gorman spoke for her generation and for an art-form that is often neglected.

What couldn’t be seen was the scaffolding and support to get to that point: the development of a process to discover and support young poets in their professional practice, to nurture the necessary resilience to perform before an audience and the media.

Our proposal is to develop a similar scheme here in Australia — and to do it responsibly, through conversation and listening to our partners, poetic communities and young practitioners.

We want a scheme that will inspire more young people to practice poetry, support their creative and professional development, and address the current lack of opportunities for emerging poets in their late teens and early twenties. In doing all this, we will amplify the voice, concerns and perspectives of young people in Australian culture and increase appreciation of poetry as an art-form. This is what the Creative Futures Fund enables us to do.

Here’s how we’re going to do it...

Over the next year, we will talk to some of the young poets who we hope will benefit from a Youth Poet Laureate scheme to ensure what we develop will serve their needs. We will do this through one-on-one conversation as well as panels and round-tables.

We will talk to dozens of organisations across Australia - in every state and territory - as well as internationally, who we hope will play a role in the creation and delivery of the scheme.

We will appoint a number of Youth Poetry Ambassadors as part of Poetry Month this year. They will participate in a scaled-down pilot of the scheme so that we can explore some of the principles through practice. It is different from the Youth Poet Laureate scheme itself which will ultimately work on a larger scale, throwing out a much bigger net by recruiting through an Open Call.

Alongside the pilot scheme, we will build the business case to secure long-term philanthropic support for an ongoing Youth Poet Laureate scheme.

The exact shape of a National Youth Poet Laureate scheme will emerge this year as we work through these conversations. But our starting proposition is that every two years we will create a cohort of eight State/Territory Youth Poet Laureates, of whom one will become National Youth Poet Laureate. These poets will probably be aged 18-24. They will be selected through an Open Call, with judging conducted by a panel of peers and experts within their state. Together and individually they will receive paid commissions to write poems and perform at events at a state and national level.

It is also our hope that the scheme will work with schools to inspire the next generation of Youth Poet Laureates.

The point of a consultation process is that these principles will evolve, change and deepen. Our sincere hope is that a year from now we will be in a position to announce the scheme is going ahead. We are mindful that development does not always lead to delivery and we have a long journey ahead.

If our proposal excites you and you would like to hear more, read the FAQs and watch the video below where I answer questions I imagine you could have about this exciting pilot project.

Remember to sign up to one of our newsletters to keep up to date on our progress, and email us any time with suggestions.

And to all budding poets — hold steady. Our hope is to launch in 2026 and we will communicate about this if and when that approaches.

Yours in poetry,
Jonty Claypole, CEO

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Frequently asked questions

Why does Australia need a Youth Poet Laureate?

There aren’t enough opportunities for emerging poets in Australia, particularly for school-leavers who have yet to establish a professional practice. A National Youth Poet Laureate scheme will inspire more young people to become poets, support their creative and professional development, and raise the visibility of poetry throughout Australia.

Why a ‘laureate’? Isn’t that just an old-fashioned word/concept?

Part of the consultation process is to enquire what is the right term. As a starting proposition, however, the phrase ‘National Youth Poet Laureate’ implies the importance of this role. It will also allow our Youth Poet Laureate to participate in international projects alongside the many other ‘National Youth Poet Laureates’ from countries around the world.

How does this relate to the separate Poet Laureate of Australia scheme?

The National Youth Poet Laureate scheme is an independent scheme to celebrate and support emerging poets under the age of 25. We foresee many opportunities to work closely with Australia’s Poet Laureate in the same way that Poet Laureates and Youth Poet Laureates work together in other countries.

How will it work?

Our starting proposition is that every two years we will create a cohort of eight State/Territory Youth Poet Laureates, of whom one will become National Youth Poet Laureate. These poets will probably be aged 18-24. They will be selected through an Open Call, with judging conducted by a panel of peers and experts within their state. Together and individually they will receive paid commissions to write poems and perform at events at a state and national level.

Aren’t slam organisations doing this already?

Regional and national slam organisations do amazing work platforming and supporting young voices. The National Youth Poet Laureate scheme is designed to provide another set of sorely-needed professional opportunities for emerging poets. We also want to ensure that young poets who aren’t comfortable performing in public, and prefer writing for the page over the stage, have more opportunities than there currently are.

Will poets be paid?

Red Room is committed to paying poets, and all poets selected for the program will be paid professional rates.

How do I apply?

Applications will not be taken until the actual scheme is confirmed. At this stage, we are keen to receive any comments you might have which we can feed into the pilot program. By signing up to our newsletter, you can be kept up to date about the development of the pilot program.