Friday 28 August is National Poetry Day. Here in Aotearoa, National Poetry Day has been celebrated since 1997, the event "a beloved literary celebration, bringing communities together through more than 100 events across the motu each year."
Poetry is a wonderful thing; it is an accessible and creative way to express the challenges and joys of living; it can make you laugh and cry in a few lines, and help make a little more sense of this complicated world we live in.
Ōtautahi has a vibrant poetry scene with some of the strongest voices in the country including poets shortlisted and winners of Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, poets recognised for Queen's Birthday Honours and the Prime Ministers Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry. We have youth poets published in Write On - School for Young Writers, and Ōtautahi Youth Poetry Slam upcoming at WORD Christchurch. There are regular open mic sessions across the city with featured guest poets and new voices: Late Night Poetry Hour, The Canterbury Poets' Collective, Catalyst, Common Ground, Speakeasy and more. And we have local presses such as ngā pukapuka pekapeka and Sudden Valley Press, with what feels like a wonderful new poetry collection launched every week or so.
Write your own! Enter our poetry competition, Monday 17 to Monday 31 August
This year Christchurch City Libraries are again celebrating with a city-wide National Poetry Day Competition - write, inspire and compete!
Winners will have their poems printed on a tote bag and have their poems published on our website.
We will accept either paper entries (hand these in, along with the entry form to a library staff member during the competition period) or online using the form below.
There are two categories: Adults and under 18 years. Poems are to be no longer than 16 lines, one poem per entrant*.
The National Poetry Day competition opens on Monday 17 August 2026.
Poetry inspo
For kids and teens
I have the great pleasure of selecting books of poetry for tamariki and rangatahi for a National Poetry Day display on Hapori, Tūranga. There is a lot to choose from:
- picture book poetry Down in the Forest by Yvonne Morrison
- verse novel Baby Teeth by Meg Grehan
- Aotearoa poets Poem for Ataahua by Alistair Campbell and Roar Squeak Purr – a New Zealand treasury of animal poems edited by Paula Green
- poetry to change the world This Is Not A Small Voice - poems by Black Poets by Traci N. Todd
- free verse and hip-hop poetry The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
- poetry from around the world Are You An Echo? - the lost poetry of Misuzu Kaneko.
And so so much more.
Find out more
Happy National Poetry Day all!
Rachel, Library Assistant, Hapori, Tūranga
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