The Val Vallis Award is an Australian poetry award named in honour of the Queensland poet Val Vallis (1916–2009). Val Vallis was a lyric poet who lectured in English and Philosophy at the University of Queensland. In 2002 the then Arts Minister, Matt Foley, announced "...the naming of a major poetry award, the first Arts Queensland Val Vallis Award for Unpublished Poetry to commemorate Val’s contribution to poetry in Queensland." Bronwyn Lea the former poetry editor of University of Queensland Press then "designed and implemented the award" in 2003 and it today it is administered and managed by Queensland Poetry Festival (QPF) on behalf of Arts Queensland.

Entry to the Val Vallis

Entry can be submitted from Australia wide as part of Queensland Poetry Festival's annual Poetry Awards. Submissions usually open in May/June each year. Arts Queensland Val Vallis Award currently offers $2000 in total prizes for an unpublished poem or suite of poems for Australian emerging poets including the winner and r/up as well as support from Queensland Writers Centre. The prize is managed by and presented as a part of the Queensland Poetry Festival.

Winners

2003 Jaya Savige 2004 Judy Johnson 2005 Ynes Sanz, Quandamooka Suite 2006 Nathan Shepherdson, The easiest way to open a door is to turn the handle 2007 Andrew Slattery, Frameworkers 2008 Anna Krien 2009 Andrew Slattery 2010 Michelle Cahill 2011 Rachael Briggs, Tough Luck 2012 Chloe Wilson, Not Fox Nor Axe 2013 B.R. Dionysius, Protein Gradients 2014 Chloe Wilson, The Heads of Holofernes (judges Judith Beveridge, Sarah Holland-Batt, Kent MacCarter) 2015 Andrew Last, Precedent (judges Melinda Smith and Michael Farrell) 2016 Caitlin Maling, Conversion (judges Robert Sullivan and Chloe Wilson) 2017 Bronwyn Lovell, Quietly, on the way to Mars (judges Michelle Cahill and Stuart Barnes) 2018 Zenobia Frost, Reality On-Demand (judges Alison Whittaker and Angela Gardner) 2019 Damen O’Brien, Ice and Glass (judges Tamryn Bennett, Judith Beveridge, Yvette Holt) 2020 Helen Lucas, Heirloom (judges Felicity Plunkett and Samuel Wagan Watson) 2021 Dimitra Harvey, Cicadas (judges Sara M Saleh and Andy Jackson) 2022 Dan Hogan, Aduantas (judges Lucy Van and Damen O'Brien) 2023 Jarad Bruinstroop, Fragments on the Myth of Cy Twombly (judges Benjamin Dodds and Zenobia Frost)