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Meet the Judges

To help us identify Australia’s most original and distinctive new writers, The Next Chapter draws on the expertise of literary professionals experienced in reading, writing and the processes of publishing and editing.

2023 Judges

Maxine Beneba Clarke

Bruce Pascoe

Maria Tumarkin

Past Judges

Tony Birch (2020)

Maxine Beneba Clarke (2018)

Claire G. Coleman (2021)

Sophie Cunningham (2019)

Ambelin Kwaymullina (2019)

Benjamin Law (2018, 2019)

Nam Le (2020)

Jeanine Leane (2021)

Ellen van Neerven (2018)

Christos Tsiolkas (2018, 2019)

Maria Tumarkin (2020)

Alison Whittaker (2020)

Fiona Wright (2021)

Arnold Zable (2021)

In the first round of assessment, The Next Chapter judges were supported by a team of experienced readers: Adolfo Aranjuez (2019, 2020, 2021), Bridget Caldwell (2019, 2020, 2021), Jo Case (2019), Maddee Clark (2020, 2021), Elizabeth Flux (2019, 2020,2021), Leanne Hall (2019, 2020, 2021), Laniyuk (2020), Adalya Nash Hussein (2020, 2021), Hella Ibrahim (2019), Zoya Patel (2019), Melanie Saward (2020, 2021), Jeff Sparrow (2019) and Kahlid Warsame (2021).

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