Books and reading: Writing competitions

Competition Key Dates

Entries open: 20 March 2023
Entries close: 2 October 2023
Longlist announcement: 18 October 2023
Shortlist announcement: 1 November 2023
Awards Ceremony: 7 December 2023

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Little Stories, Big Ideas is a literary competition for Australian Secondary School Students. Entrants write to a specific themed prompt in 100 words or less, in any literary style they like – think: climate change, environmental issues, diversity, respect, acceptance, inclusion, political landscape, asylum seekers and refugees, and more. The competition runs 4 times a year and there are great prizes on offer for winners. Entry is free and entries from all over Australia are welcome.

Entries are now closed for the 2023 Mulga Bill Writing Award, and winners have been selected!

Check out the award winners; you may wish to enter next year!

These bootcamps have concluded for 2023. We will keep you updated as to when the next ones will take place.

Entries open July and close September.
Short stories, poetry, and photography.

The annual WordFest Short Story Competition is a celebration of local emerging writers.

Competition opens 10am Monday, 19 June 2023
Competition closes 11.59pm Sunday July 30 2023

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What Is NaNoWriMo?
National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days. Now, each year on November 1, hundreds of thousands of people around the world begin to write, determined to end the month with 50,000 words of a brand new novel. They enter the month as elementary school teachers, mechanics, or stay-at-home parents. They leave novelists.

Writers Victoria supports and connects all types of writers at all stages of their writing careers. The website also provides a list of potential competitions for young writers.

The KYD School Writing Prize will reopen shortly and we will let you know when it is back on!

This opportunity has closed for 2023, we will update this space as soon as the opportunity has opened up again.

The complete collection of winning, shortlisted and commended poems from the 2021 competition, Dorothea MacKellar Poetry Awards. Two Mount Scopus students, (year 7 2021) have a poem in this volume.

Poems, a national theme is suggested but students may write their poem on any theme. Entries accepted: March 1 to June 30, results announced during early September.The theme for 2023 is "The winding road"

The Hachette Australia Prize for Young Writers gives young writers the opportunity to hone their skills under the guidance of some of Australia’s favourite authors. The Prize aims to ignite passion for creative writing and poetry in the minds of Australia’s secondary school students, and to encourage them to pursue writing and publishing opportunities inside and outside of the classroom.

This competition has closed for 2023. We will update when the opportunity opens up again next year.