Past Winners

2023

WINNER

Away To Me

Author: Jen Rewell

Click here to read the story

Open Short Story Finalists

The Drey

Author: Eugenie Pusenjak

The Lucky Country

Author: Natalie Vella

Junior Short Story Finalists

WINNER

The Abominable Hairball

Author: Nina Samalca

Denise The Menace

Author: Ariana Kutrolli

Dead Girl Walking

Author: Heidi Gilbert

Highly Commended: We Had Two Cockies – Merryn Ford
Highly Commended: The Important Letter – Poppy Wilson
Commended: Trapped Inside – Shriani Mukera
Commended: The Cat and the Clover – Gabrielle Elford
Commended: Aray, the Golden Brumby – Octavia Ford
Commended: Escape – Teagan Roberts
Commended: 3:30 – Jaime Miles

Youth Short Story Finalists

WINNER

Here

Author: Imogen Templeton

2nd Place

Her

Author: Layla O’Callaghan

3rd Place

The Taxi Man

Author: Charlotte Seddon

Highly Commended: A small bump – Charlotte Seddon
Highly Commended: Plague – Jyotis Jo
Highly Commended: Sandcastles – Denise McCarthy
Commended: Trapped – Denise McCarthy
Commended: The Wonders Of The Waves – Chloe Andonoudis

Youth Poetry Finalists

WINNER

Ravens Bring Lavender

Poet: Sharanya Senthil Kumar

2nd Place

Spun Through Time

Poet: Jenna Birchall

3rd Place

The last confession

Poet: Dorothy Lune

Highly Commended: A Desperate Silence – Darcy Mintern
Highly Commended: Fall and Rise: A Baby Bird’s Flight – Bonnie Carver
Highly Commended: The Sky’s Tears – Layla O’Callaghan
Highly Commended: pain without physicality – Denise McCarthy
Commended: Grandpa Glynne – Grace Davies
Commended: An underrated colour – Cody Fairless

Junior Poetry Finalists

WINNER

Ode to my Mum’s Spaghetti Bolognese

Poet: Milo Rose

2nd Place

Heavens Above

Poet: Riley Wooster

Equal 3rd Place

Floods

Poet: Mollie Chambers

Highly Commended: Patience Riley – Wooster
Highly Commended: Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo – Errol Rose
Highly Commended: Race Day – Idylla Damien
Highly Commended: Tranquil Chaos – Lilliana Stapleton
Commended: My Frankie Girl – Ted Stapleton
Commended: Our Beautiful World – Ayra Fatima

2023 OPEN SHORT LIST

Animal Farm
Author: KA Rees
Ardberg
Author: Morris Bryant
Away To Me
Author: Jen Rewell
Cockroach Kids
Author: Olivia Wolfe

The Scheherazade Machine
Author: Frank Russo
Homecoming
Author: Peter Arnold-Nott
Mixtape Diary
Author: Amy St Lawrence
Nineteen Miles
Author: Allyson Hose

Once Was a Tyrant
Author: Christian Fennell
Panic Strap
Author: Claire Aman
Pascal’s Pots
Author: Andrew Nest
The Drey
Author: Eugenie Pusenjak

The Lucky Country
Author: Natalie Vella
The Queen of Sheba
Author: Alison Killick
Time Capsule
Author: Deborah May
Under Construction
Author: Michael-John Scallan

2023 Open Long List

Bite Back
Erminia Villani
See You Next Tuesday
Adeline Teoh
Jon Burrower’s Birds
Patrick Arulanandam
Time Capsule
Deborah May
The Palace of Memories
Kerrin O’Sullivan
Moonlighting
Kathy Sharpe
The Lucky Country
Natalie Vella
The Fishing Competition
Holly Cardamone
The Setting Sun
Penni Giuliani
The Magpie
Kathryn Thacker
Rabbits
Susan Yardley
Rani’s Nachos
Geetha Pathanjali
SPIRALLING IN STREAM C: Slow days in the Newstart Alcove.
Dominic Gordon
Utopia 50mg
Sean Crawley
The World’s Best Lamington
Donna Elkins
Nineteen Miles
Allyson Hose
Animal Farm
KA Rees
The Drey
Eugenie Pusenjak

It’s Always The Sea
Deborah Huff-Horwood
A Post-Pandemic Australia
Sandra Jones
The Preferred Place
Maryanne Graham
Mixtape Diary
Amy St Lawrence
Unexplained Anxiety for Consideration
Meredyth Tamsyn
Eusebio
Meredyth Tamsyn
The Clearing Sale
Xavier Duff
A Car and a Screwdriver
Nathan Power
The Knowing
Plucked
Ola Kwintowski
Charlie
Odette Des Forges
The Snake
Sally Bothroyd
reincarnate
grace garnett
Pascal’s Pots
Andrew Nest
Captain Amundsen’s Secret
Stephen Dando-Collins
A Dinky-di Dilemma
james hughes
Big Country, Cowboy
Alaina Dean
Vegemite on Toast
Andrew Brown

Remnants
Kate Maxwell
Found
Julie Twohig
Like A Cork
Sharon Kernot
The Queen of Sheba
Alison Killick
A Cut Below
Douglas Coster
Away To Me
Jen Rewell
Yarra
Lincoln McAlister
Brink
Robert Johnson
The Dither Fish
Gabriel Cornell
The Scheherazade Machine
Frank Russo
He’s out there
Katy Knighton
Fatso and Bluey
Barry Rosenberg
Cockroach Kids
Olivia Wolfe
Flotsam and Jetsam
Georgia White
The Caretaker’s Cottage
Karen Hamilton
Homecoming
Peter Arnold-Nott
A Metal, Cold and Useless Thing.
Eliza Henry-Jones
The Need to Be Needed
Jim Brigginshaw

seagull
Janet Fuller
A Tale of Two Sauces
Gregory McKittrick
Pluck a Duck
Candice Rose
A Boy, A Girl, and a Beach
craig duckmanton
Midsummer Daydream
Jane Downing
Panic Strap
claire aman
Ardberg
Mars Landing
Warren
Greg Foyster
Mother of God
Sue Osborne
Cold against porcelain
Kristy Marshall
Fault lines
Maree Badgery-Parker
The Lagoon
Keith Johnson
The Scar Tattoo
Harold Legaspi
Alpine
Tug Dumbly
Under Construction
Michael-John Scallan
Once Was a Tyrant
Christian Fennell
Hole in the Earth / Cakes
John Potts
The Knowing
Chris Corbett

2023 LIVE STREAM

2022

WINNER

Art and Life

Author: Cate Kennedy

Open Short Story Finalists

Second

The Game

Author: Lisa Moule

Third

Winter is for Regret

Author: Natalie Vella

Junior Short Story Finalists

WINNER

Colour

Author: Lila Plunkett

2nd Place

The Cough

Author: Lila Plunkett

3rd Place

A Light in the Darkness

Author: Mary Loughnan

Highly Commended: A Cats Journey – Maddelyn Fletcher
Highly Commended: Eureka! – Riley Wooster
Highly Commended: A wave of emotions! – Aditi Xavier
Highly Commended: Destruction – Magin Joseph
Highly Commended: Pepsi – Cara Pearce

Youth Short Story Finalists

WINNER

The Taliban

Author: Layla O’Callaghan

2nd Place

Stars and Skies

Author: Erin Hicks

3rd Place

Teenage Cage

Author: Martha McKellar

Commended: Cloaked in Mystery – Hannah Hamilton
Commended: Heist – Cedric Pang
Commended: Beneath my Sails – Layla O’Callaghan
Commended: Tea and Biscuits. – Charlotte Seddon
Commended: My Mariam – Alisha Fitzgerald
Commended: A Happier Time – Jenna Birchall
Commended: Cherith Farm – Denise McCarthy

Youth Poetry Finalists

WINNER

Intergenerational rot-out kitchen

Poet: Dorothy Lune

2nd Place

Our Pastime

Poet: Layla O’Callaghan

3rd Place

Take Me to a Place

Poet: Casey Clark

Highly Commended: Ink – Rowan Farren
Highly Commended: Invisible War – Keara Devine
Highly Commended: Blood rose in the Garden of Proserpine – Keara Devine
Highly Commended: I run – Layla O’Callaghan
Highly Commended: A blank canvas – marcy carboon
Highly Commended: Catching The So-Called Silence – Lilly Fidock

Junior Poetry Finalists

WINNER

A Sea of White

Poet: Riley Wooster

2nd Place

Ode to my Mandarin Tree

Poet: Milo Rose

Equal 3rd Place

When I saw the Monet

Poet: Milo Rose

Highly Commended: Wildfire – Riley Wooster
Highly Commended: Election Time! – Errol Rose
Commended: Australia – Lilliana Stapleton
Commended: Let’s All Play – Riley Wooster
Commended: In my hand a book of selected poems by W.H Auden – Errol Rose
Honourable Mention: Literature at its Finest – Riley Wooster

2022 Open Short List

Protection
Author: Deborah May
Winter is for Regret
Author: Natalie Vella
Leaving
Author: Kym Tyzack
Moon Standing
Author: Sue Osborne

The Game
Author: Lisa Moule
Pause, remember?
Author: Magdalena McGuire
Fake Plants
Author: Scott Limbrick
Art and Life
Author: Cate Kennedy

A Brush Turkey’s Guide to Life
Author: Christine Jackman
Hardly David
Author: Janet Fuller
The Flood
Author: Marian Edmunds
Bat On A Wire
Author: Dean Croxon

Breadcrumbs
Author: Craig Billingham
00:00
Author: Isabella Ballestrin
Sunshine
Author: Daniel Alwan
All the Way Through
Author: Thomas Alan

2022 Open Long List

Relative Sins
Author: Hayley Young
Fallow
Author: Philippa Yelland
The View from North Beach (3016 words)
Author: M Jane woodGreen
Finding Home
Author: Katrina TeHemara
Toska Sunrise
Author: Adelaide Stolba
Handy hints for a perfect life
Author: Jo Scanlan
Five Hours South
Author: Juliette Salom
Crossing the Great Divide
Author: Paul Roe
Threads
Author: KA Rees
Answer: A Trojan Horse
Author: Eugenie Pusenjak
The Wrong Type
Author: Kate Pozzobon

Kenny Hart is a God
Author: Emma O’Neill-Sandham
Homecoming
Author: James Noonan
Time for the Piper
Author: Sharyn Munro
Highly Flammable
Author: Lisa Moule
The Way Back
Author: Kate Maxwell
The Miner’s Wife
Author: Bette Martin
Magpie Eulogy
Author: Susan Lizacic
25 Mandowie Road
Author: Daniel Li Wan Wang
half-moons filled with jam
Author: Andy Kovacic
The Chill is Gone
Author: Liz Kirk
Broken Bricks, Black Water
Author: Rochelle Jardine

Grace
Author: Anne Hotta
Wagering
Author: Scott Hoffman
I’m gunna win the Archibald
Author: Glenn Hodgkin
The Great Australian Dreamer
Author: Deborah Henley
Bite
Author: Victoria Griffin
Byron Goddess
Author: Kim Frost
Griffith
Author: Rachel Flynn
Pegged
Author: Jean Flynn
Sign
Author: Jean Flynn
In Like Flynn
Author: Sam Elkin
What Remains
Author: Mo Duggan

For Sale: Nissan Pulsar. Only One Owner, Minor Dent, Slight Interior Odour.
Author: Josh Donellan
Fan Club
Author: Josh Donellan
X, Y and Z
Author: Sean Crawley
Mindfulness
Author: Jordon Conway
Give and Take
Author: Sean Collins
Number 28: Stroke
Author: Harry Colfer
No Relief Here
Author: Ina-marie Canute
Jerome
Author: Beth Brown
Send In The Clowns
Author: Rachel Briscoe
Terror Australis
Author: Wendi Bradshaw
The Day Before
Author: viki blaik
The Uniform
Author: Kavita Bedford