Commonwealth Poetry Prize

The Commonwealth Poetry Prize was an annual poetry prize established in 1972,Alastair Niven, 'The Commonwealth poetry prize', in Richard Maltby and Peter Quartermaine, eds., The Commonwealth: a common culture, pp.53-62. for a first published book of English poetry from a country other than the United Kingdom. It was initially administered jointly by the Commonwealth Institute and the National Book League.{{cite book|author1=William Henry Wilde|author2=Joy W. Hooton|author3=B. G. Andrews|title=The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BtlmAAAAMAAJ|year=1985|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-554233-2|page=172|chapter=Commonwealth Poetry Prize}}

In 1985 the prize received sponsorship from British Airways. £11,000 prize money was provided for the prize, which was advertized as "the world's most comprehensive award for poetry".[https://www.pnreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/scribe?item_id=5833 News & Notes], PN Review 44, July–August 1985. Accessed 1 September 2020.

Poems by 35 winners of the prize, each introduced with a brief biographical note, were collected in a 1987 anthology, Under another Sky.Alastair Niven, ed., Under another sky: an anthology of Commonwealth Poetry Prize winners. Manchester, England: Carcanet, 1987.

The prize was discontinued in 1987, and a Commonwealth Writers Prize established in its place.