TWELVE-YEAR-OLD BLAKE MACKENZIE FROM NEWCASTLE AND BIVOR FROM ALICE SPRINGS CROWNED 2026 AUSTRALIAN POETRY SLAMBASSADORS

Year 6 student and Central Australian poet share prize worth $20,000 and a year on the world stage after audience election at the Sydney Opera House

SYDNEY, NSW, AUSTRALIA, October 26, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Twelve-year-old Blake Mackenzie from Newcastle and Alice Springs poet Bivor have been crowned the 2026 Australian Poetry Slambassadors after topping the scores of ten judges drawn randomly from the audience at Sunday night’s National Final at the Sydney Opera House.

In the first round, Blake opened with I love my country, a poem about racism and inequality in Australia, to secure a place among the top five finalists, then returned for the final round with Dear ChatGPT, a piece about how AI is replacing friendship and work and whether we can trust it or if it's what we want our future to look like, earning him 2026 Youth Champion. Bivor performed Ourselves, followed by Politics is doing you, to become the 2026 Adult Champion.

Together, they share in a prize package worth $20,000. As Youth Champion, Blake will have the opportunity to perform at festivals across Australia, and Bivor will represent Australia at international festivals in Ubud and Singapore as the Adult Champion.

Miles Merrill, CEO and Creative Director, Word Travels, said: “Australian Poetry Slam, takes the pulse of a nation each year with writers tackling themes as dark as domestic violence and as pithy as a job interview at 7-11. People have shared what matters to them in towns and cities from Wallaby Creek in Far North QLD to Hobart to Tennant Creek to Bunbury to Parramatta and 60 other places in between. Last night the crowd chose two voices they want representing Australia on the world stage. Congratulations to Blake and Bivor, our 2026 Australian Poetry Slambassadors.

“Our theme, Poets Run This, asks more of our nation’s leaders by amplifying the poetic voices of people across the country who often feel unheard and unrepresented. Blake and Bivor now take their energy and message to festival stages across Australia and overseas.”

Now in its 22nd year, the Australian Poetry Slam is a national performing writers program in which people perform their original poems and stories. Audience members elect local Slambassadors to represent their regional, remote and metro communities. The 2026 season ran 65 heats in 60 towns and cities, leading to Finals in every State and Territory before the nation’s top 16 spoken-word artists joined each other on the Sydney Opera House stage.

As the 2026 Australian Poetry Slambassadors, the title given to each year’s national champion, Blake and Bivor take up publishing and performance opportunities through 2027 at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Singapore Writers Festival and more. They follow 2025 Slambassador Arantza Garcia Ferrand, who performed at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival this year.

The National Final also welcomed Ubud Poetry Slam Champion Kismet Krystle as a special guest, sparking discussions of a future Asia Pacific Poetry Slam!

Presented by Word Travels, the 2026 season was powered by local stages including Speakeasy in Dubbo, Spill in Launceston, Mackay Poetry Slam and Enough Said in Wollongong, with Word Travels working alongside Red Dirt Poetry in the Northern Territory, Canberra Slam, Spoken Word SA and Perth Slam.

Word Travels also helps incubate Black Ink, an emerging BIPOC literary arts organisation in Brisbane, and tours regional workshops and story-sharing sessions to First Nations and new migrant communities.

For more information about the Australian Poetry Slam and Word Travels, visit: australianpoetryslam.com and wordtravels.org.au

Australian Poetry Slam 2026 Press Pack and Images available HERE

ENDS

Interviews available
Press Pack HERE

MEDIA ENQUIRIES: Original Spin 
Maddy Nguyen | maddy@originalspin.com.au | M: +61 468 190 945 
Lachlan Camilleri | lachlan@originalspin.com.au | M: +61 426 744 063

EDITORS’ NOTES

ABOUT WORD TRAVELS
Word Travels is a not-for-profit arts organisation. It creates literary and literacy programs with festivals, private companies, libraries, schools and cultural organisations around the Asia Pacific with a focus on developing performing writers.

Word Travels’ key objective is to inspire people to tell their stories in creative ways, primarily through live performance. It brings live performance to communities, encouraging people to speak up, listen to each other and take action.

Lachlan Camilleri
Original Spin