Competitions, Awards & Opportunities
The Australian Shadows are the annual literary awards presented by the AHWA and judged on the overall effect – the skill, delivery, and lasting resonance – of horror fiction written or edited by an Australian.
The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award is one of Australia’s richest and the most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of thirty-five. Offering prize money of $20,000 plus publication by Allen & Unwin with an advance against royalties, The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award has launched the careers of some of Australia’s most successful writers, including Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Gillian Mears, Brian Castro, Mandy Sayer and Andrew McGahan.
Celebrating the very best in Australian stage and screen writing the AWGIE Awards recognise and reward the outstanding achievements of Australian storytellers and their contribution to Australia’s cultural landscape. These prestigious awards are the only industry awards given by writers to writers judged exclusively on the basis of the writer’s own vision, the script.
Open to all Australian writers of commercial fiction, offering the chance to win a publishing contract with HarperCollins, with an advance of $15,000. Two runners-up will each receive a written assessment of their manuscript from HarperCollins.
The Barrow Street Press Book Contest award will be given for the best previously unpublished manuscript of poetry in English. See website for full details.
For humorous short stories (any theme) up to 2500 words. Multiple entries are accepted.
The black&write! Writing Fellowships are offered annually to two Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writers. The fellowships include a prize of $10,000, editorial development and publication opportunities.
Must be bush poetry (containing rhyme and rhythm). Must have an Australiana theme. No limit on length.
The 2021 Blacktown Mayoral Creative Writing Prize is open to adults and children who live in Blacktown city. Entrants will write a short story or poem responding to the theme of The only way is… The total prize pool is $1,600.
The Blake Poetry Prize challenges Australian poets to explore the spiritual and religious in a new work of 100 lines or less. It runs alongside the Blake Art Prize and the major prize is $5000.
A prize of $1000 will be awarded to a book that is not only an outstanding work of fiction but excels at increasing the awareness and developing the understanding of history in children.
Bridport Creative Writing Competition is open for aspiring writers everywhere. It is committed to discovering new writers in poetry, short story, flash fiction and the novel.
The Bristol Short Story Prize is an annual international writing competition in its 14th year in 2021. 20 stories will be shortlisted and published in Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 14 by Tangent Books. The winner and 2 runners up will be selected from the shortlist and announced at an awards ceremony. The 2021 judging panel is: literary agent, Irene Baldoni; manager of Foyles’ bookshop in Bristol, Tom Robinson; and award-winning writer, Mahsuda Snaith.
The British Australian Community, an incorporated association, was established in 1967 to represent the interests of Australian residents of British Isles descent. The award is for an essay of up to 800 words on the theme of the positive heritage of British culture in Australia.
The Bronze Swagman Award is Australia’s most prestigious award for written bush verse, running annually since 1972. Poems to be traditional Australian bush verse form with an Australian theme. Poems must not have previously won a first, second or third prize in any written competition prior to the announcemant of the winner.
The award honours Bruce Dawe and is for an original unpublished poem of not more than 50 lines. No theme.
The Calibre Essay Prize is one of the world’s leading prizes for a new essay and it is now worth a total of $7,500. The Calibre Essay Prize, then known as the Calibre Prize for an Outstanding Essay, was first presented in 2007 as part of a joint initiative between ABR and Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
The annual Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards affirm the quality of some of Australia’s most creative people and provide a boost to their capacity to devote time to their craft.
The annual CBCA Book of the Year Awards affirm the quality of some of Australia’s most creative people and provide a boost to their capacity to devote time to their craft. Established with the first awards in 1946, the annual CBCA Book of the Year Awards aim to: promote quality literature for young Australians, support and encourage a wide range of Australian writers and illustrators of children’s books, and celebrate contributions to Australian children’s literature.
The Children’s Peace Literature Award is a biennial award to one or more Australian authors and/or illustrators of books for children that encourage the peaceful resolution of conflict or promote peace at the global, local or inter-personal level. Nominations can be made by publishers and by authors or illustrators.
The Colin Roderick Award, valued at $20,000, recognises the best Australian book of the year that deals with any aspect of Australian life.
Must be first published between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2020.
Must be published by an Australian publisher, although they can be printed off-shore.
Cannot be self-published works or solely published as an e-book.
The Copyright Agency offers Fellowships for Australian writers and visual artists to create significant new works. Fellowships are available for Australian writers who have achieved some success and critical acclaim with their writing and who have a publisher interested in publishing the intended work.
The Daisy Utemorrah Award is for an unpublished manuscript of junior or YA fiction. The Award is open to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples currently living in Australia.
Each year, early career writers of migrant background are invited to apply for the Deborah Cass prize. The prize is in the memory of Deborah Cass. The granddaughter of Jewish immigrants, Deborah Cass became a prize-winning professor of International Law at the London School of Economics. After diagnosis of cancer, Deborah left her academic career and focused on creative writing. She had a number of short fiction pieces published, but was unable to realise her aim to complete a novel. With generous support from family and friends, this prize aims to help…
Since 1921 this unique literary competition has been providing a platform for authors and writers who are blind or have low vision to showcase their talents to the rest of Australia and we are proud to be celebrating 100 years in 2021.
Adult short story
Adult poem / song lyrics / limerick
Adult article / opinion, e.g. self-reflection, blog post
Senior student creative category, e.g. story, poem, song lyrics, limerick, blog post
Junior student creative category, e.g. story, poem, long lyrics, limerick, blog post
People’s Choice category – short story. All entries are published online for a public vote.