Competitions, Awards & Opportunities
The Melbourne Prize for Literature and Awards recognise and reward excellence and talent in literature across all writing genres and career stages. The program includes the $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Literature 2021, the new $20,000 Professional Development Award 2021 and The $15,000 Writers Prize 2021.
The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, poetry prize and the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History celebrate the contribution of Australian literature and history to the country’s cultural and intellectual life. Awards are presented in six categories; fiction, non-fiction, young adult literature, children’s literature, poetry, Australian history.
The Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature acknowledges the achievements of eminent literary writers who are 60 years of age and over who have made outstanding and lifelong contributions to Australian literature.
The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award is one of Australia’s richest and the most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of thirty-five.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.
For humorous short stories (any theme) up to 2500 words. Multiple entries are accepted.
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 Stella Prize is a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing and an organisation that champions cultural change.
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…
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.
Must be bush poetry (containing rhyme and rhythm). Must have an Australiana theme. No limit on length.
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 Award encourages development of material (not necessarily religious) that conveys a message of faith, hope and love. A panel of judges are appointed annually by the Rodney Seaborn Playwright’s Trust. Preference is given to persons who have resided in Australia for at least one year.
Scarlet Stiletto Women’s Crime and Mystery Short Story Competition open to women residents of Australia. Young Writer’s Award open to women under 21. Short stories must contain an active woman protagonist and a crime or mystery theme and maximum 5,000 words. All entries original and unpublished works of the author. Maximum two stories per author.
The Nita B Kibble Awards (The Kibble Awards) recognise the works of Australian women writers of fiction or non-fiction prose. The work must be about or in connection with life in Australia and must be capable of being classified as ‘life writing’ which includes novels, autobiography, biography, travel and other writing with a strong personal element. Please refer to the Kibble website for more information on the next awards.
Knightville Poetry Contest: Three poems per entry. Up to 300 lines per poem. Machigonne Fiction Contest: Submit up to 7,500 words of prose, anything from flash to long stories. Novel excerpts are welcome, as long as the manuscript functions as a stand-alone story. Previously unpublished work only. International submissions welcome.
Founded by the world-renowned BBC Aeronautics Correspondent Reg Turnill and his wife, Margaret, to celebrate the life and works of HG Wells and encourage creative writing, especially among the young, the prestigious HG Wells Short Story Competition offers generous Senior and Junior prizes and free publication of all shortlisted entries in a quality, professionally published paperback anthology. 2019 dates to be confirmed.
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.
The prize was created to discover and publish new writing talent. The winner of the prize is offered a publishing contract with Impress books with the aim of publishing the book in the year following the award. The Impress team also looks at all entries, whether on the shortlist or not, with a view to publication by Impress Books. 2019 dates to be confirmed
A free to enter short story writing competition. Ongoing monthly competition. Deadline: Last day of every month. Prize: $30. Submit short stories of up to 3,000 words. Open theme.
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 8,000 to 20,000 words.
Knightville Poetry Contest: Three poems per entry. Up to 150 lines per poem. Machigonne Fiction Contest: Submit up to 5000 words of prose, anything from flash to long stories. Novel excerpts are welcome, as long as the manuscript functions as a stand-alone story. Previously unpublished work only. International submissions welcome.
The Horne Prize will be given for an essay of exceptional quality, of no more than 3000 words. The essay must address the theme ‘Australian Life’, be that a profile or a reported feature centred on a particular issue, or a series of vignettes or something else that explains who we are and how we live. Entrants need not be published or professional writers, but craft skills of professional calibre are essential. First prize is $15 000.
Entries must be fiction but can be on any subject and written in any style or form. International competition based in the UK. Entries must be between 180-360 words.
The Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award encourages the development of new Australian plays or performing arts projects emphasizing positive values. The Award is offered each year for the development of a play or other approved performing arts project. The Award provides financial assistance for playwrights during the writing or development of a play or a project. It is not intended as a prize for a finished work.