Australian Poetry Slam is an annual poetry slam competition run within Australia. Contestants of all ages, experiences and talents perform live and are judged by the audience to determine the best both locally and nationally through a succession of heats and finals. It is run in the style of an "open slam" in which anyone is able to register to perform. Events are typically hosted by the previous year's Australian Poetry Slam Champion or another established performing writer. History Australian Poetry Slam began in 2005, progressing from individual regions and states to the national competition it is today. This was largely made possible by Word Travels partnership with government libraries from 2005 until 2009, and the collaboration continues to exist on a lesser scale. It developed into a national competition in 2007, during which Marc Testart was crowned the first Australian Poetry Slam Champion. National poetry slams, with a similar format also occur in America, Canada, New Zealand and an increasing quantity of African nations. Word Travels Miles Merrill brought poetry slams from Chicago to Australia both through his own artistic endeavours and by founding Word Travels. Merrill remains the creative director of Word Travels. In 2010 Word Travels was approved as an incorporation and not-for-profit arts association. Word Travels created and continues to run the Australian Poetry Slam both through government funding and grants, as well as donations from the public. Story Week Word Travels has additionally created an annual literary festival known as Story Week (formerly Story-Fest until 2019) which coincides with the Sydney, New South Wales and National Finals of the Australian Poetry Slam. Story Week takes place throughout various locations in Sydney, NSW and typically includes workshops, forums and performances by local and international artists. Artists involved in Story Week have included Ian Keteku, Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa, Kaie Kellough and Deborah Emmanuel. Rules The Australian Poetry Slam has a fairly compact set of rules aimed at controlling participation, organising logistics and increasing fairness. The current Australian Poetry Slam rules are listed on the Australian Poetry Slam website. Format The competition begins annually with over 50 heats representing local council areas arounds around Australia. Poets with the highest scores from each heat progress to regional, state or territory finals. Many heats are run specifically for the Australian Poetry Slam competition, with several run in partnership with local spoken word events such as West Side Poetry Slam and