Competitions, Awards & Opportunities
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.
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.
The Stella Prize is a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing and an organisation that champions cultural change.
The Somerset National Novella Writing Competition is offered by Somerset College and is part of its Celebration of Literature Festival. Competition open to all Australian secondary students. Entrants must be under 19 years of age at close of entries. Required word length is 10,000 to 20,000 words. See website for further details.
The 2021 StoryLinks Short Story competition is open to all writers of children’s stories aged 18 and above.
1000 words. Long-list, short-list, and winners announcements published. All 40 long-listed are published in an anthology and receive a free copy of the book. The winner receives a $250 writer coaching package and the front cover of the anthology is designed based on their story. Annual competition. This year’s theme is Courage.
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 $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.
Awarded annually to the best manuscript written for young readers, the $10,000 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing aims to discover incredible new books by exciting authors. The prize has unearthed extraordinary, multi-award-winning books and launched international publishing careers.
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 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 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 CA WestWords Western Sydney Emerging Writers Fellowships offers 3 Fellowships of $4,000 each to emerging writers from the Greater Western Sydney region.
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 Wyndham Writing Awards 2021 aims to recognise emerging Victorian adult writers. Prizes will be awarded for unpublished works in three categories: short story, flash fiction and poetry. Shortlisted entries will be published in the Wyndham Writing Awards Anthology 2021. Wyndham Writing Awards 2021 is proudly funded by Arts Assist.
Original non-fiction essay (in English) between 3,000 and 7,000 words. Only open to Australian citizens or residents. All non-fiction styles are eligible. Non-defamatory and not infringing privacy of others. Multiple entries acceptable, but entries must not be under consideration for any other award. See website for terms and entry forms.
Each ABR Fellowship is worth $5000. Funded by ABR’s generous Patrons and by philanthropic foundations, the Fellowship program is intended to reward outstanding Australian writers and to advance the magazine’s commitment to critical debate and literary values. ABR will offer two or three such Fellowships each year.
Internationally recognised competition in two categories: Poetry and Short Fiction. Finalists published in the Aesthetica Creative Works Annual.
The AlburyCity Short Story Award offers $1000 cash first prize. The maximum word limit is 3000 words. Entry fee is $10. Details and conditions of entry can be found on the website.
The Ampersand Prize aims to find brilliant debut novels by YA and middle-grade writers. Since its launch, the Ampersand Prize has quickly become the premier award for debut novelists in Australia and New Zealand. Manuscripts must be full-length novels. MG novels are usually between 30,000 and 50,000 words long. YA novels are usually between 50,000 and 90,000 words long.
Ten minute play competition. Black box theatre style no longer than 1500 words. Radio plays, monologues, comedy, drama, youth plays encouraged.
The objectives of the Australian Bush Poets Association is to foster and encourage the growth of Bush Poetry in Australia. By definition, Australian Bush Poetry is metred and rhymed poetry about Australia, Australians and/or the Australian way of life.
American competition, open to anyone writing in English. Submit full length manuscripts of original poetry in English, between 60-85 typewritten pages. Winner receives a publishing contract and $2500 cash reward.
Awarded to the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society. In 2014, the prize pool is $55,000, including $50,000 for the winning title.
The Bath Children’s Novel invites entries from children’s novelists of any nationality or perspective. All genres of chapter, middle grade and young adult novels are eligible – from funny to dark, fashionable to forever, fantastic to futuristic.The Bath Children’s Novel Award is a prize for unpublished and self-published novelists.