Young Tasmanian Writers' Prize 2024
The Young Tasmanian Writers’ Prize is a short fiction competition open to Tasmanians enrolled in Years 7-12 at schools that are current members of TATE and home-schooled students.
Sponsored by Forty South Publishing, with the generous support of the Tasmanian Association for the Teaching of English (TATE).
Prizes: Winner of each section receives $300; Two runners up of each section receive a $30 Fullers Bookshop gift voucher; Peter Sharp Memorial Award (awarded in the Junior section): Winner receives $100; The Jane Franklin Hall Prose Award (awarded in the Senior Section): $200
Winning stories will be posted online in the Young Tasmania section of fortysouth.com.au
Winners' schools each receive a one-year subscription to Forty South Tasmania print magazine.
ENTRIES FOR THE 2024 PRIZE WILL OPEN ON 1st MAY AND CLOSE ON 26th JULY 2024
Seniors (Years 10 - 12): 800-1500 words
Incorporate any THREE of the following elements in your story:
A line from an Australian text
A world leader (past or present)
Reference to a place in Tasmania
A recurring line or phrase
An object that is passed between characters
Juniors (Years 7 - 9): 700-1000 words
Using your own words, choose ONE of the following prompts to begin your story:
The sight of a mountain
The sound of running water
The smell of mud
The feel of feathers
The taste of salt
How to Enter
1. Read the Terms and Conditions
2. Buy your entry via the online bookshop
3. Submit your entry via the electronic form
JUDGES
Senior Section: Kate Gordon
Kate Gordon grew up in a small town by the sea in Tasmania. She is the author of numerous award-winning picture-books and novels for younger readers, including Aster’s Good, Right Things, published by Yellow Brick Books in November, 2020, which won the CBCA Book of the Year for younger readers in 2021, and was shortlisted in the Tasmanian Literary Awards in 2022. The companion novels, Xavier in the Meantime and Indigo in the Storm were published in 2021 and 2023. Whalesong was published by Yellow Brick Books in 2022, following Kate’s residency at the Maritime Museum of Tasmania. Kate continues to write novels and picture books from a cottage overlooking the river and the mountain on the Eastern Shore of Hobart. She has two daughters, an elderly cat and a very silly labradoodle.
Junior Section: Johanna Bell
Johanna is based in nipaluna (Hobart), where her creative practice spans poetry, picture books, podcasts and audio installations. She's most interested in picture books and writing that challenges the established rules of storytelling and her work has been recognised with awards including the CBCA Picture Book of the Year (2017), the Northern Territory Literary Award (2016 / 2018 / 2019), the Australian Podcast of the Year (2020) and a shortlisting for the Prime Minister's Literary Award (2020). When she's not writing, she spends a lot of time in the bush, watching birds.
The Jane Franklin Hall Prose Award (Senior Section): Lucy Christopher
Lucy is a multi-award-winning and bestselling writer for young adults, children, and adults. Her work is psychological and emotional, often inspired by wild places. Her novels for young adults are Stolen, Flyaway, The Killing Woods, The Darkness and Storm-wake, published in over twenty countries, and her picture books are Shadow and The Queen on Our Corner. Her first novel for adults, Release, has been recently published. Lucy has won many international awards including the Branford Boase, Printz Honor Award, Golden Inky, and the Prix Farniente. She was shortlisted for the Costa Award, Waterstones Prize, Australian Prime Minister’s Awards, and longlisted for the Carnegie Medal. She has a MA and PhD in Creative Writing, and is an experienced speaker at conferences and festivals. Previously, she was Reader in Creative Writing and Course Director at Bath Spa University. She is now Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing for the University of Tasmania, and a Jane Franklin Hall Fellow.
Peter Sharp Memorial Award (Junior Section): Penny Lane
After a teaching career in Hobart, Canberra and Sydney, during which she wrote two books about teaching, Penny Lane turned to writing short stories and more recently poetry, and has won several awards for both stories and poems. She was a finalist in the 2017 Newcastle Poetry Prize, and most recently won first and third prizes in the free verse section of the 2019-20 Sutherland Shire Literary Competition. She has published a Kindle e-book, Winning Writing: What Works For Me, about her short story writing.
Shortlist Selection: Tracy Lampkin
Tracy Lampkin holds degrees in Arts and Business. She has a particular passion for languages, etymology and the formalities of good writing. Tracy has worked across a range of private industries throughout Australia and in the United States. She reads across a very eclectic range of subjects and is a devoted bibliophile. She despises hanging participles.
