Who will wear the crown of Poet Laureate? Photo: Shutterstock.
The Australian poetry community is agog with the news that the nation is poised to have its first official Poet Laureate in over 200 years, a position that has been created under the Federal Government’s new National Cultural Policy (NCP).
ArtsHub reached out to a number of poets and industry figures to gauge their reaction. All interviewees were cautiously optimistic about the position, with everyone curious to know more details about the appointment process and the terms of engagement.
Thuy On is the former Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian.
She has three collections of poetry published by the University of Western Australian Press (UWAP): Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025).
Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy
