Competitions, Awards & Opportunities
The National Biography Award, supported by the Nelson Meers Foundation, celebrates excellence in biography, autobiography and memoir writing. With a prize pool of $42,000 it is the nation’s richest prize for Australian biographical writing and memoir.
Launched in 2002, the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award is an initiative of Queensland Theatre with the support of the Queensland Government, which is open to all Australian citizens and permanent residents who have an unproduced live-performance text requiring further development towards its production debut. The Award intends to develop new works that are an artistic response to, or reflection of, ‘Australian Society’ and expose audiences to this work.
Write a Book in a Day is a fun, creative and collaborative competition for students in years 5 to 12 and adult writing groups. Teams of up to ten have just twelve hours to write and illustrate a book from start to finish. To make it even more fun, unique parameters must be included in the story. Digital editions of the completed stories are made available on the Online Library and shared with hospitals across Australia.
The Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism are presented annually in Australia to recognise and reward the best in the craft. Finalists are selected by eminent journalists and photographers and overall winners judged by the Walkley Judging Board.
The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards were inaugurated by the Victorian Government in 1985 to honour literary achievement by Australian writers. The winners of the seven award categories go on to contest the overall Victorian Prize for Literature, the single most valuable literary award in the country.
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 $500 Tasmanian Writers’ Prize is open to residents of Australia and New Zealand. Entries should be a maximum of 3,000 words, and should be on an island or island-resonant theme. The Tasmanian Writers’ Prize began in 2009. Each year the winning entry is published in Forty South magazine, and the best entries are published in Forty South’s annual anthology.
A competition for secondary students in years 10 to 12 in NSW and ACT. Students submit an original short story of 1,000 words.
The Queensland Memory Awards are dedicated to supporting researchers of all kinds to interpret the collections of the John Oxley Library. Through deep engagement and interaction with the collections, these interpretations provide new insights into the collection and contribute new knowledge about Queensland’s history.
Time to challenge yourself, dust off your writing skills, put pen to paper or fingers to keypads. The Society of Women Writers’ biennial National Writing Competition is open to female writers who are Australian citizens or permanent residents, aged 18 years or over, members and non-members. Prizes awarded for categories of Short Story (Fiction), Short Story (Non-Fiction), and Poetry. Winning entries will also be considered for inclusion in The Society’s centenary anthology to be published in 2025.
The Young Writers Award is an annual short story competition for Queensland residents aged 18 to 25 for stories up to 2,500 words, to encourages and support promising Queensland writers. The Young Writers Award is supported by Griffith Review and Queensland Writers Centre.
Awarded for a poem of no more than 50 lines, this biennial award is named in honour of a much-loved member of the Society of Women Writers Victoria. Kathryn conducted poetry workshops in her home for members, who greatly benefited from her expertise and mentoring. After her death, the Society set up the Kathryn Purnell Poetry Prize in her honour. It is open to SWW members in all branches and female non-members. Entries must be written by women, and unpublished, original work, not concurrently entered in another competition, and not previously in receipt…
Imagine 2200 draws inspiration from Afrofuturism, as well as Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, disabled, feminist, and queer futures, and the genres of hopepunk and solarpunk. They are seeking short stories that centre on climate solutions from the most impacted communities and bring into focus what a just, regenerative future could look like.
The 2021 StoryLinks Short Story competition is open to all writers of children’s stories aged 18 and above.
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.
A short story competition run by Hunter Writers Centre for all Australians living here or abroad.
Awarded for an outstanding unpublished manuscript by an emerging Queensland writer. Authors who have previously self-published a full-length work with an ISBN are not eligible. Unpublished authors must not have an existing binding publishing contract or be in current contractual negotiations.
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.
Publishable gives up to 25 emerging writers the chance to take part in a tailored Manuscript Development Program. Each writer will be given a personalised timetable designed to strengthen, refine, and polish their completed manuscript. Over a period of two weeks, writers can expect to work with published authors, QWC mentors, and industry experts to improve their craft and take their manuscript closer to publication.
Aesthetica is looking for the best new writing talent. The international literary prize is open to poetry and short fiction submissions on any theme, celebrating innovation in content, form and technique.
The Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award presented by Waverley Council with support from Principal Sponsors Mark and Evette Moran, celebrates excellence in research and writing in Australia. It is the only major national literary award of its kind presented by a local council.
The NSW Premier’s History Awards were first presented in 1997 to honour distinguished achievements in history by Australian citizens and permanent residents. Held annually, the awards assist in establishing values and standards in historical research and publication and encourage everyone to appreciate and learn from the work of our historians.
The Patrick White Literary Award was established to advance ‘Australian literature by encouraging the writing of novels, short stories, poetry and/or plays for publication or performance’ The award is presented each November following the consideration of nominations by a judging panel.
The Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards supports, develops and recognises excellence in Western Australian writing. These Awards are made available by the Western Australian Government and are managed by the State Library of Western Australia.
The Lifted Brow & RMIT non/fiction Lab Prize for Experimental Non-Fiction is an annual writing prize that aims to unearth new, audacious, authentic and/or inauthentic voices from both Australia and the world. Submissions should convey meaning using unorthodox form, or style, or voice, or pointof-view, or approach/method, etc.