For the past 38 years, the New Zealand Poetry Society Te Rōpū Toikupu o Aotearoa has published an annual anthology in conjunction with their International Poetry Competition. After the competition’s winners have been selected, the anthology editors choose and edit a selection of entries into the year’s anthology. We’re very proud of all 38 anthologies, including our new 2025 addition, There Are Rabbits Here.

”Choosing the winners from this cornucopia of riches was an agony. I read and re-read the poems, and each time, I discovered new angles, new interpretations, new favourites. Each time, I was sure this poem would be the one. Or possibly this one. No wait…this one. I’ll admit, some poems changed columns more than once.”

LEE MURRAY, Open Adult Judge

“What stuck out to me across the entries this year was the wide range of tones – poems ranged from the comedic to the blunt. Our young poets traversed topics as wide as grieving for someone no longer with us to logging in to a video game. Across all topics, no matter how serious or minute, our young poets made surprising observations. Poems also demonstrated a range of attitudes to poetry, poetic personas and craft.“

JOSIAH MORGAN, Open Junior Judge

“My principal judging criterion was simply this: Did I feel somehow touched or even moved by the experience conveyed in and by the haiku I just read?“

SCOTT MASON, Adult Haiku Judge

“The journey of reading and choosing what I felt to be the worthy winners became an adventure. I was looking for a tight, minimal-worded contemporary haiku that would ‘move’ the reader. Or, one that would carry a subtle depth where ‘the muse’ is woken. A haiku with pathos or humour, that would leave space for the reader to ruminate.”

JENNY FRASER, Haiku Junior Judge