Writing Competitions

Closing date: 23 February 2025

Stringybark Stories is proud to announce its 44th short story competition since 2010. Stringybark Publishing, and authors Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist are proud to sponsor the Stringybark Open Themed Short Story Award 2025.

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Closing date Thursday 27 February 2025

The Next Generation Short Story Awards, currently in its second year, is a not-for-profit international awards program for authors of short stories. The Short Story Awards is now accepting entries of short stories and poems in English (5000 words or less) for the 2025 awards program in 30+ categories. 

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Entries close February 14, 2025

The prize is for short stories up to 3,000 words having an island, or island-resonant, theme.

The winning entry receives a cash prize of $500 and all finalists’ stories will appear in the 

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Closing date February 13, 2025 

The Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the most exciting and rewarding book awards program open to independent publishers and authors worldwide, is currently accepting entries written in English and released in 2023,

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• Opens: Midday 24 January 2025 AEDT; 
• Closes: Midnight 26 January 2025 AEDT 

The Not Quite Write Prize challenges writers to break the writing ‘rules’ while still telling a compelling 500-word story. 

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FLASH FICTION

1st place: ‘Heading Off’ David Brelsford
2nd place: ‘Walking to the Strand’ Thom. James
Highly Commended: ‘The Whisper of Trees’ Dianne Morton
Highly Commended: ‘An Ordinary Day’ Karen Payne
Commended: ‘Voices’ Christabel Strehle
Commended: ‘Farewell Francesca’ Robyn Knibb

PHILIPPA HOLLAND AWARD FOR POETRY

1st Place: ‘Two Canticles’ Colleen Keating
2nd Place: ‘Breathe…’ David Campbell
Highly Commended: ‘ungraspable’ Colleen Keating
Highly Commended: ‘Languid Ribbons’ David Terelinck
Highly Commended: ‘Embarking on a Poet’s Lighthouse Residency’ Ronald Atilano
Highly Commended: ‘Cloud Reading’ Richenda Rudman
Commended: ‘The Human Heart is 73% Water’ David Terelinck
Commended: ‘No Drone’ Ronald Atilano

ALAN RUSSELL AWARD FOR MEMOIR

1st place: ‘Peril Beyond the Moment’ Karen Payne
2nd place: ‘Tough’ Cheryl Lockwood

SHORT STORY

First Place: ‘The Seat at Table Rock’ David Campbell
Second Place: ‘The Gift’ Mike Woodhouse
Highly Commended: ‘Blind Faith’ Gayle Neighbour
Highly Commended: ‘The Driving Lesson’ Ivy Jacqueline Higgs
|Highly Commended: ‘Lunch Meeting’ Tania Park
Commended: ‘The Aroma of Coffee’ David Brelsford
Commended: ‘Children Know Best’ Tania Park
Commended: ‘On Second Thoughts’ Robyn Knibb.

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The Inaugural 2023 Ernestine Hill Memorial Short Story Competition:

Winner: Rachel Flynn, Fitzroy North, Victoria
Story Title: ‘Griffith’

The 2023 Rae Alison Cerhan Australiana Ballad:

Winner: Nola Vickery
Poem Title: ‘Under Opal Skies’.

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SECTION 1: SENIOR SECONDARY

Winner: 
Sienna Graziani, ‘The Mortician’s Lament’, Central Coast Adventist College NSW

Highly Commended: 
Adrian Zeckendorf, ‘Consumption’, St Michaels Collegiate TAS. 

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SECTION 1: Senior Secondary

General comments 
Whilst plot lines were often imaginative and the themes had a moral twist, too many stories appeared to be first drafts with no revision.

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WINNER: 

Roger Vickery, Freshwater NSW, for ‘SPURS’.

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National Cherry Festival Writing Competition 2022

Celebrating 40 years at Young 1982–1922

Categories were: 

• Short Story Adult Section
• Poetry Adult Section
• Short Story School Students Section Yrs 7-8-9
• Short Story School Students Section Yrs 10-11-12
• Poetry School Students Section Yrs 7-8-9
• Poetry School Students Section Yrs 10-11-12
• Short Story Junior Primary Section Yrs 1-2-3
• Short Story Junior Primary Section Yrs 4-5-6
• Poetry Junior Primary Section Yrs 1-2-3
• Poetry Junior Primary Section Yrs 4-5-6

The full 

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2022 FAW Jean Stone Poetry Award 

Winner: 
‘From Impermanence’, David Atkinson, Beecroft NSW. 

Short listed: 

‘Under Opal Skies‘, Nola Vickery, Frenchs Forest NSW 
‘Beauty in the Breeze‘, Rod Fransisco, Ooralea,

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There were 125 entries in this year’s Marjorie Barnard Award and I enjoyed reading them all. I expected many would have the pandemic either as the focus of the story or at least in the background, but there were only three,

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The quality of the entries was very good. The winner and the commended stories were of a very high standard. I found difficulty in choosing a commended story. Those whose stories are shortlisted have high potential as creative writers.

Many writers had an imaginative story line and fell down when they didn’t deliver with tight writing.

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Good People

by Jodie Kewley, Red Hill South, Victoria

His mother hardly spoke on the long drive home, which suited him. She asked if he wanted the radio on and he said no. She asked if he wanted to stop at Maccas and he said no.

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The Voice of Nothing 

by Nathan Mackrill, Year 11, Barker College

Is it the sea you hear in me?
Its dissatisfactions?
Or the voice of nothing, that was your madness?

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