In this week’s ABR Podcast we feature the shortlist for the 2026 Peter Porter Poetry Prize. Now in its twenty-second year, the Porter Prize is one of the world’s leading competitions for a new poem in English. This year, our judges are Judith Bishop, ABR Poetry Editor Felicity Plunkett, and Anders Villani. The shortlisted poets are J Andros, Kirsten Krauth, Cheryl Leavy, Claire Potter, and Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet. The five shortlisted poems appear in the January/February 2026 issue of Australian Book Review, which is on sale now.

In this week&rsquo;s ABR Podcast we feature the shortlist for the 2026 Peter Porter Poetry Prize. Now in its twenty-second year, the Porter Prize is one of the world&rsquo;s leading competitions for a new poem in English. This year, our judges are Judith Bishop, ABR Poetry Editor Felicity Plunkett, and Anders Villani. The shortlisted poets are J Andros, Kirsten Krauth, Cheryl Leavy, Claire Potter, and Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet. The five shortlisted poems appear in the January/February 2026 issue of Australian Book Review, which is on sale now.

Welcome to The ABR Podcast, produced by Australian Book Review. Released every Thursday, The ABR Podcast features a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.

For more information about ABR, visit our website, www.australianbookreview.com.au

Welcome to The ABR Podcast, produced by Australian Book Review. Released every Thursday, The ABR Podcast features a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.
For more information about&nbsp;ABR, visit our website, <a href="http://www.australianbookreview.com.au">www.australianbookreview.com.au</a>

Welcome to The ABR Podcast, produced by Australian Book Review. Released every Thursday, The ABR Podcast features a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.

The ABR Podcast

ABR is delighted to introduce its brand-new podcast, The ABR Podcast.

Released fortnightly every Wednesday, The ABR Podcast will feature a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on the iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.

ABR&nbsp;is delighted to introduce its brand-new podcast,&nbsp;The ABR Podcast.
Released fortnightly every Wednesday,&nbsp;The ABR Podcast&nbsp;will feature a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on the iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.

Peter Porter Poetry Prize 2026 Shortlist 

This week on The ABR Podcast, Joel Deane reviews Niki Savva’s Earthquake, an account of the 2025 Australian federal election and the role of political expediency in shaping a country. ‘Like payday loans,’ Deane writes, ‘the costs of short-term political decisions accumulate and compound’, demanding repayment. Joel Deane is a speechwriter, novelist, and poet. He has worked in newspapers, television, and politics in Australia and the United States. He is the co-author of Making Progress: How good policy happens, published in 2025 by Melbourne University Publishing. Here is Joel Deane with ‘Lemmings over a cliff: On political and publishing expediency’, published in the March issue of ABR. 

This week on The&nbsp;ABR&nbsp;Podcast, Joel Deane&nbsp;reviews&nbsp;Niki Savva&rsquo;s&nbsp;Earthquake, an account of the 2025 Australian federal election and the role of&nbsp;political expediency in shaping a country. &lsquo;Like payday loans,&rsquo; Deane writes, &lsquo;the costs of short-term political decisions accumulate and&nbsp;compound&rsquo;,&nbsp;demanding repayment. Joel Deane is a speechwriter, novelist, and poet. He has worked in newspapers, television, and politics in Australia and the United States. He is the co-author&nbsp;of&nbsp;Making Progress: How good policy happens, published in 2025 by Melbourne University Publishing. Here is Joel Deane with &lsquo;Lemmings over a cliff: On political and publishing expediency&rsquo;,&nbsp;published&nbsp;in the March issue of&nbsp;ABR.&nbsp;

'Lemmings over a cliff: On political and publishing expediency' by Joel Deane

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature Stephen Garton’s commentary ‘When universities mattered: Higher education in a country addicted to the plough’. ‘There was a time when Australian universities mattered. Should they again?’ asks President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and former University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor Stephen Garton in a feature assessing the state of knowledge production in Australia. As the government sets about creating a new body to oversee higher education, Garton says the conversation about education should extend beyond the question, ‘Are you job ready?’ Here is Stephen Garton with ‘When universities mattered: Higher education in a country addicted to the plough’, published in the March issue of ABR.

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature Stephen Garton&rsquo;s commentary &lsquo;When universities mattered: Higher education in a country addicted to the plough&rsquo;. &lsquo;There was a time when Australian universities mattered. Should they again?&rsquo; asks President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and former University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor Stephen Garton in a feature assessing the state of knowledge production in Australia. As the government sets about creating a new body to oversee higher education, Garton says the conversation about education should extend beyond the question, &lsquo;Are you job ready?&rsquo; Here is Stephen Garton with &lsquo;When universities mattered: Higher education in a country addicted to the plough&rsquo;, <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/1029-march-2026-no-484/14906-when-universities-mattered-higher-education-in-a-country-addicted-to-the-plough-by-stephen-garton">published in the March issue of </a><a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/1029-march-2026-no-484/14906-when-universities-mattered-higher-education-in-a-country-addicted-to-the-plough-by-stephen-garton">ABR</a>.

‘When universities mattered: Higher education in a country addicted to the plough’ by Stephen Garton

This week, on The ABR Podcast, Mindy Gill reviews Dead and Alive, Zadie Smith’s latest essay collection. For Gill, Smith’s essays ‘have an uncanny habit of arriving precisely when the culture shifts’. Dead and Alive ranges across technology and digital surveillance, authorship and literature, and the erosion of public space, among other urgent concerns. Considered together, ‘these essays reveal continuities otherwise invisible when read in isolation: a set of preoccupations that cut across ostensibly tangential subjects’.

Mindy Gill was ABR’s 2021 Rising Star. A poet, critic, and former editor-in-chief of Peril magazine, Gill is an Associate Lecturer of Creative Writing at Queensland University of Technology. She has won the Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award and the Tom Collins Poetry Prize. Her collection of poems, August Burns the Sky, was shortlisted for the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize. Here is Mindy Gill with ‘Thought’s tempo: Essays that imagine otherwise’, published in the January-February issue of ABR.

This week, on The ABR Podcast, Mindy Gill reviews Dead and Alive, Zadie Smith&rsquo;s latest essay collection. For Gill, Smith&rsquo;s essays &lsquo;have an uncanny habit of arriving precisely when the culture shifts&rsquo;. Dead and Alive ranges across technology and digital surveillance, authorship and literature, and the erosion of public space, among other urgent concerns. Considered together, &lsquo;these essays reveal continuities otherwise invisible when read in isolation: a set of preoccupations that cut across ostensibly tangential subjects&rsquo;.
Mindy Gill was ABR&rsquo;s 2021 Rising Star. A poet, critic, and former editor-in-chief of&nbsp;Peril&nbsp;magazine, Gill is an Associate Lecturer of Creative Writing at Queensland University of Technology. She has won the Queensland Premier&rsquo;s Young Publishers and Writers Award and the Tom Collins Poetry Prize. Her collection of poems,&nbsp;August Burns the Sky, was shortlisted for the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize. Here is Mindy Gill with &lsquo;Thought&rsquo;s tempo: Essays that imagine otherwise&rsquo;, published in the January-February issue of ABR.

Peter Porter Poetry Prize 2026 Shortlist

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