The AAWP is DELIGHTED to announce the winners of AAWP’s suite of prizes – offered in collaboration with local and international partners (Ubud Writers and Readers Festival; Spineless Wonders / Short Australian Stories; University of Western Australia Publishing; Westerly Literary Magazine; Voiceworks / Express Media).We thank all authors and translators for submitting their fine work. We take this opportunity to celebrate shortlisted and longlisted entrants. Please click on the prize winners’ names below for full access to details: highly commended authors and detailed judges’ reports.

10+ years ago, as a newly appointed member of the AAWP ECOM, I pitched an idea for a prize (a prize for a full-length manuscript, in partnership with the University of Western Australia Publishing). Since that time, the Prizes and Partnerships Portfolio has expanded to a suite of 7 prizes and partnerships: prizes for short-form writing and novella-length works, as well as a full-length manuscript – prizes in poetry and prose (fiction, creative non-fiction, hybrid forms of writing, and life writing) and works of translation.Behind the scenes, the prizes and partnerships portfolio involves significant labour. With this in mind, I extend my deep gratitude to many.

Thank you to Katrina Finlayson who has worked with me in managing the activities of this portfolio, across many years, refining processes and practices for schmick governance. Katrina will step down in her role in 2025. On behalf of the AAWP community, THANK YOU, Katrina, for your professional and emotional compass – your deep understanding of the imperatives of this portfolio, your grace under pressure, as well as your broader solidarity and labour in support of AAWP initiatives.

Thank you to Sarah Giles, who recently joined the team and has proven herself invaluable. 

Thank you to Jen Webb, who provides ongoing support including (but not limited to) facilitating publication pathways for winners, shortlisted authors, and translators.Thank you to our judges, for your labour and minds’ eyes.I am deeply grateful to various members of the AAWP Committee of Management (ECOM), who work together to create publication pathways and networking opportunities for emerging and established writers and translators.

Warmly, always.

Julia.

Associate Professor Julia Prendergast
AAWP President/Chair
Portfolio Lead: AAWP Prizes and Partnerships

The Results

A Turn About the Garden by Nick Clarke for the AAWP x Spineless Wonders Novella Prize 
Other People’s Children by Lee Casey for the AAWP x UWAP Chapter One Prize
‘Acts of Self-Preservation’ by Rashida Murphy for the AAWP x Westerly Magazine Life Writing Prize 
‘Food Baby’ by Ledya Khamou for the AAWP x Express Media Sudden Prize 
‘Jolie’ translated by Thila Varghese for the AAWP x UWRF Translators’ Prize 
‘Cats in Canals’ by Andre Carmichael for the AAWP x UWRF Emerging Writers’ Prize for Prose 
‘Before the Rise’ by Edward Kus for the AAWP x UWRF Emerging Writers’ Prize for Poetry