UQP editor Yasmin Smith wins 2024 Nakata Brophy Poetry Prize

A huge congratulations to UQP editor and award-winning poet Yasmin Smith on her 2024 Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers win.

Sponsored by Trinity College at the University of Melbourne, the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers, established in 2014 and now in its ninth year, recognises the talent of young Indigenous writers across Australia.

First prize includes $5000, an optional writing residency at Trinity College, and publication of the successful piece in Overland. The prize alternates between poetry and short fiction each year.

In 2024, first prize has been awarded to the best poem up to 88 lines by an Indigenous writer who is 35 years or younger at the closing date of the competition. Two runners-up prizes have also been awarded.

After careful consideration, judges Karen Wyld and Eugenia Flynn have selected Yasmin Smith as the winner of this years Nakata Brophy Prize!

Yasmin's poem 'Dawning in the Rivulet of My Father’s Mourning' is a deeply personal poem set on Toonooba (Darumbal Country) that reels together grief, loss and language and will be featured in a forthcoming issue of Overland.

Yasmin Smith is a poet and editor of South Sea Islander, Kabi Kabi, Northern Cheyenne and English heritage. She is currently UQP series editor of the First Nations Classics and works across fiction, non-fiction, children’s books and poetry.