The Books That Made Us Youth Fiction Prize

In conjunction with the forthcoming ABC series Books That Made Us, hosted by Claudia Karvan, the Wheeler Centre is teaming up with ABC Education, Radio National’s Big Weekend of Books and Voiceworks, on a new writing prize to nurture the talent of young writers.

The Books That Made Us Youth Fiction Prize invites students in Years 10 and 11 to submit a piece of short fiction (up to 300 words) responding to the theme of Landscape.

Budding writers can reflect on people, power and place in any landscape, whether it’s environmental, political, emotional or imaginative.

Up to 10 winners will have the opportunity to develop their stories in a series of workshops run by the Wheeler Centre, with experienced facilitators and established Australian authors. The final works will be edited and published in a special insert of Voiceworks Autumn 2022 issue.  

Entries will be judged by award-winning writer Alice Pung, Sweatshop Collective editor and writer Claire Cao, Voiceworks editor Adalya Nash Hussein  and Schools Programmer at the Wheeler Centre, Bec Kavanagh.  

Visit the Voiceworks competition page for more information, including writing stimulus, and submit your story.

This initiative is supported by The Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.

Key dates

Entries open: 27 August 2021, 9am AEST

Entries close: The deadline for submissions has now been extended until Friday 15 October 2021, 11.59pm AEDT

Workshops and Editing: February 2022