Competitions

Participating in writing competitions is a great challenge for any writer. It pushes you to be a bit more disciplined with your writing and promote your talent and skill to others. It also opens to networking with other like-minded people who have a love for writing. 

The Society of Women Writers Victoria (SWWV) encourages members to get your writing out by joining competitions and vie for awards and prizes. In this page we share the competitions for different genre of writing that may suit individual members’ styles. 

SWWV runs a number of competitions for writers at every stage of their career. Read on for further information.

The Alice Award

The Alice Literary Award is presented to an Australian woman who has made a distinguished, long-term contribution to Australian Literature. The award is in the form of a trophy and it is presented biennially. The winner is chosen after consultation with the state branches of the Society and each branch takes a turn at hosting the Alice Literary Award. The Alice Award will next be presented in 2022 by the Society of Women Writers NSW.
Enter here

Nance Donkin Award for Children’s Literature

Nance Donkin, AM, (1915–2008) was a pioneer and leading light in the world of Australian literature for children, especially historical fiction. Many people will fondly remember reading The Maidens of Pefka, Patchwork Grandmother, Johnny Neptune and Yellow Gum Gil; her retelling of We of the Never, Never for children; and the series of books about life in Australia, including Sheep and Sugar. While some of her books seem dated now, having been published over sixty ...
Enter here

The Kathryn Purnell Poetry Prize

The Kathryn Purnell Poetry Prize  The winners of the Kathryn Purnell Poetry Prize 2023 are: Ist Prize:  Gillian Telford  (Suitable - UK1950's) 2nd Prize:  Beverly Lello  (Ngarigo Country) 3rd Prize:  Paige Spence  (National Air and Space Museum) Highly commended: Keely Mewett  (Storyteller) Highly commended: Emily Edwards (Streets of Elysium) Shortlisted Darrelle Spenceley (She writes) Mary Jones (Silver Birch) Beth Clapton (Regent Honeyeater) Shoshana Rockman (Green Dream) Beth Clapton (Seeking Yvonne) Congratulations to all the winners and ...
Enter here

The Margaret Hazzard Short Story Award

The Society of Women Writers Victoria is delighted to announce the winner for the 2022 Margaret Hazzard Short Story Award. There were a total of 72 entries for the competition this year and each story was read three times by a number of shortlist readers who scored them according to a set of judging criteria. From these scores, the top 8 stories were determined and sent on to judge Keshe Chow. The shortlisted entries: Michael's ...
Enter here

SIGN UP TO BE THE FIRST TO FIND OUT ABOUT OUR EVENTS

Copyright 2021 Society of Women Writers Victoria Inc. ABN 56912391043

All rights reserved.
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram Skip to content