If you’re interested in pushing your literary barrow further, read on:

IP Picks 2010 Awards

The IP (Interactive Publishing Pty Ltd) Picks Awards provide guaranteed royalty publication to the best book-length manuscript in five categories: Best Fiction, Best Creative Non-fiction, Best Poetry, Best Junior Fiction or Non-fiction, Best First Book.

First Place Winners of each category are awarded pulication. Highly Commended entrants are given a short reader’s report valued at $249, offering editorial advice on how to improve the manuscript. Commended entrants will receive a summary of the judging panel’s report on their entries. There is no guarantee of publication for Highly Commended or Commended entrants.

The competition is open to citizens and residents of Australia and New Zealand.

More details are available at http://ipoz.biz/IP/IP_picks.htm

Entries close 1 December 2009.

The CAL Scribe Fiction Prize

This new prize is open for an unpublished manuscript by any Australian writer over 35, who may or may not have been published before. The winner of the CAL Scribe Fiction Prize will be awarded a book contract from Scribe and a prize of $12,000.

This prize recognises that there are many examples of late bloomers when it comes to writers, certainly in terms of getting published. Youth is already celebrated in so many ways, and Scribe wants to support writers who are emerging or still going strong in their prime.

Entries close 15 October.

For entry forms visit www.scribepublications.com.au/prize.

The Age Short Story Competition 2009

If you’ve got an unpublished short story under 3000 words, then this competition is for you. The Age newspaper is now accepting entries for their annual short story competition.

Manuscripts must be typed: double-spaced and on A4 paper. A separate page should be submitted with the author’s name, address, telephone number and email address. No entry form is required but no more than three stories per person should be submitted. Faxes or hand written submissions will not be accepted and manuscripts will not be returned.

Send entries to:

The Age Short Story Competition

The Age

Level 2/ 250 Spencer Street, MELBOURNE VIC 3000

or email shortstory@theage.com.au

NB. Stories for children are not eligible for this competition.

Closing date October 2, 2009 @ 5pm

Winners will be announced early December. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd winning stories will be published in A2 and also at www.theage.com.au, along with all highly-commended entries.

The first prize winner will receive $3000. 2nd prize, $2000, 3rd prize, $1000.

City of Melbourne Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Awards

The City of Melbourne and Melbourne Library Service have announced the inaugural Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Awards, marking Melbourne’s new status as the second UNESCO City of Literature.

The Awards are open to all emerging writers residing in Victoria. The main prize will be the $5000 Lord Mayor’s Award, chosen from one of four categories – short story or poetry, Three Hour Book or novella(E-book or print) and Young Writer (up to 25 years of age). 

Submissions close on 31 August 2009. Winners announced in November 2009.

For further information, visit www.melbournelibraryservice.vic.gov.au

The Text Prize for Young Adult & Children’s Writing

Submissions are now open for Text Publishing’s annual competition to unearth great unpublished manuscripts from Australian and New Zealand authors aimed at young adults and younger readers 

Judged by a panel of editors from Text Publishing, the winner receives a publishing contract and a $10,000 advance against royalties.

Entries open 4 May and close 31 July 2009.

Visit Text for more information on submissions details and entry forms.

Melbourne Prize for Literature 2009

Entries open on 11 May for the $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Literature. The prize is for a Victorian author whose body of work has made an outstanding contribution to Australian literature, as well as to cultural and intellectual life.

The $30,000 Best Writing Award is for a piece of work of outstanding clarity, originality and creativity by a Victorian writer, 40 years or under. The work can be any genre or form including fiction, non-fiction, essays, plays, screenplays and poetry.

To celebrate the outcome of the Melbourne Prize for Literature 2009, a public display of finalists in each category will be held at Federation Square from 9–23 November. You can vote for your favourite writer to win the Civic Choice Award at the free exhibition or online after the finalists are announced on 16 September. Entries cost $40.

Closes on 17 July. Full information is available www.melbourneprizetrust.org

Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards

Nominations close on 25 May for the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. A national awards program, the QPLA encourages and supports the development of up and coming authors while recognising established authors across a variety of genres.

There is $225,000 prize money for the best entries across 14 categories, including Fiction Book Award, Unpublished Indigenous Writer, Non-Fiction Book Award, History Book, Children’s Book, Young Adult Book Award, Science Writer Award, Poetry Collection, Australian Short Story Collection, Literary or Media Work Advancing Public Debate, Film Script, Drama Script (Stage) Award, and Television Script.

Visit www.literaryawards.qld.gov.au for more information.

The National Play Festival 2010

Hot on the heels of the 2009 festival, Playwriting Australia is now calling for submissions for this performance showcase in 2010. The National Play Festival is a unique opportunity to develop and present your work, in performance, to a national and international audience of theatre companies and producers.

Applications are now invited from any Australian playwright with a new, unproduced work ready for performance. You may be working independently or in a creative team with a director or dramaturg.

Nominations from Australian theatre companies are also welcome. Closes on 31 July.

http://www.pwa.org.au/Skills/NationalPlayFestival

First National Republican Short Story Competition

2009 is a milestone as it will be 10 years on 6 November 2009 since the republican referendum was lost. To commemorate this event and to remind Australians what they still don’t have, the Australian Republican Movement is calling for speculative fiction short stories between 2000 and 4000 words that portray an Australian republican future in a positive light and demonstrate the absurdity of a hereditary monarch as the Australian Head of State in 21st century Australian society.

Judging panel: Nick Earls, Brian Matthews, John Warhurst, Glenn Davies. Entry fee $11.99.

Closing date is 31 August.

republicanfiction.blogspot.com

EJ Brady Short Story Competition

There is no set theme and stories can be any genre. Maximum length for EJ Major Short Story entries is 2500 words and entry fee is $10. Very Short Stories must not exceed 700 words and entry fee is $7.

Closes 11 September.

www.artsmallacoota.org.

 2009 Rolf Boldrewood Literary Awards

The Rolf Boldrewood Literary Awards commemorate the writer and writing of Robbery Under Arms. They awards are for prose and poetry with an Australian theme.

Prose, whether fiction, article or essay, is limited to 3000 words. Poetry is limited to 80 lines and can be in any form or style.

First prize in each section is a Boldrewood bust by sculptor Brett Garling valued at $100, plus $600. Second prize is $300 and third prize $150.

Closes 18 September.

Visit www.mrl.nsw.gov.au.

ABR Reviewing Competition

This competition is a particularly good opportunity for younger and emerging writers and students who wish to establish a career in reviewing.
First prize: $1000 and publication of the review in ABR and at least two future commissions.
Second prize: $250 plus publication.
Third prize: the Short Oxford English Dictionary, Deluxe Edition, courtesy of Oxford University Press.
Reviews should be 800 words.
NB. All reviewers are eligible – including past and present ABR contributors. The book being reviewed must have been published since January 2007.

For more information, visit www.australianbookreview.com.au

Closes 31 July

The Marian Eldridge Award 2009

Marian Eldridge envisaged this award as “a professional development award to encourage an aspiring writer”. The award is open to women resident in Australia. The winner will receive $2000 plus the opportunity for discounts on writers’ programs offered by Varuna.
The winner and those highly commended and commended, will also have the opportunity to have work published in an American journal, The Broadkill Review.
Details at www.nfaw.org
Entries accepted until 29 May.

Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2009

Writers and publishers are now invited to submit entries to the prestigious Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. A total of $195,000 will be awarded to established and emerging writers across eleven categories in one of Australia’s richest and most diverse writing prizes. 
Entries close 1 May.
More details available from: www.slv.vic.gov.au/pla.

Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing

Sponsored by the Crime Writers Association of Australia, the awards are closing on 31 March 2009.
Nomination forms available from www.nedkellyawards.com

Poetry Idol returns for 2009

 

The 2009  season of Poetry Idol heats returns at venues  across Melbourne. From Mornington to Box Hill, Fitzroy to Greenborough, Poetry Idol is on every month up until 1st August. There’s a $2000 first prize and publication in the Paradise Anthology up for grabs.

 

For further information on dates and venues, visit Paradise Anthology.