The Best Australian Yarn 2024

The Best Australian Yarn is back and bigger than ever!

Submit your best short story for your chance to win a life-changing $50,000 major prize!

Your story deserves to be told…Share YOUR Story.

Entries close 12 August 2024.

Stories have an incredible ability to captivate our imaginations and forge connections. The Best Australian Yarn is the world’s richest short story competition for published and non-published writers. The Best Australian Yarn is a national short story competition where entrants from anywhere in Australia can submit an original short fiction story of any genre, no longer than 2,500 words to win part of the $80,000 prize pool.

The foundations of the competition were founded in the philosophy that “a powerful story can transport us to new worlds, ignite our emotions, and make the ordinary feel extraordinary”. The Best Australian Yarn celebrates the art of storytelling by giving writers across the country a platform to share their short stories. It’s a quest to uncover Australia’s finest literary talents and our most engaging storytellers. Entry into The Best Australian Yarn competition is FREE.

Whether you’re an accomplished author, a budding writer or a complete newcomer to creative writing, the competition welcomes all submission from everyone 12 years and over. To learn more and work you way through entry requirements – CLICK HERE

The total prize pool of $80,000 in cash prizes across a number of categories includes:

• Overall Winner – $50,000
• Runner Up – $4,000
• The Navitas ESL (English as a Second Language) Winner – $3,000
• The First Nations Storytelling Winner – $3,000
• Regional Australia Winner – $3,000
• Youth Winner – $1,500 (12-14 years)
• Youth Winner – $1,500 (15-18 years)
• Comic Story Winner – $3,000
• Comic Story Youth Winners – $1,500 (12-14 years) and (15-18 years)
• 8 shortlisted finalists – $8,000 ($1,000 each)
• Terms and Conditions

An esteemed panel of Judges join the competition which include:

Anthony De Ceglie, Director of News and Current Affairs and Editor-in-Chief, Seven West Media

Anthony De Ceglie is the Walkley award-winning Director of News and Current Affairs and Editor-in-Chief at Seven West Media. Before his tenure at Seven West Media, he was the deputy editor of The Daily Telegraph in Sydney. His first job was at a small regional paper, The Collie Mail, in rural WA.

Terri-ann White, Publisher, Upswell Publishing

Terri-ann White was director of UWA Publishing from 2006 to 2020. She has been an independent bookseller, has had her writing published widely, and she has collaborated with other artists: dancers, visual artists, and musicians. In 2021, Terri-ann launched Upswell Publishing, with a focus on distinctive works in fiction, narrative nonfiction, poetry and works of hybridity.

Robert Drewe, Australian Author

Robert Drewe’s novels, short stories and non-fiction works have won national and international prizes and have been adapted for film, television, radio and theatre. He has twice edited the Best Australian Short Stories and in 2019 his own collection of stories, The True Colour of the Sea, won the prize for the best book published in Australia. His latest novel, Nimblefoot, was published in August. His column The Other Side appears in The West every Saturday.

Rachel Bin Salleh, Publisher, Magabala Books

Rachel Bin Salleh is a Nimunburr/Yawuru woman from Broome. She is an experienced editor, has worked as a sales/administration manager, marketing assistant, production co-ordinator, part-time bookseller and now publisher. Rachel works with First Nations writers, storytellers, poets, yarners, songwriters, playwrights, performers and illustrators.

Holden Sheppard, Western Australian Author

Holden Sheppard is an award-winning West Australian author originally from Geraldton. His debut coming-of-age novel Invisible Boys won multiple accolades including the 2019 WA Premier’s Prize for an Emerging Writer. His second novel The Brink won Young Adult Book of the Year nationally at the 2023 Indie Book Awards and was shortlisted for the 2023 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Holden’s writing has been widely published in books and journals. He was Deputy Chair of Writing WA until 2023 and he currently serves as an ambassador for Lifeline WA.

Rachel Johns, Australian Author

Rachael Johns is Australia’s leading writer of romantic women’s fiction. Her bestselling books include The Patterson Girls, The Work Wives and her most recent novel, The Other Bridget, which has been a runaway success. She has won a number of awards, including the 2015 Australian Book Industry Award for General Fiction and the Romance Writers of Australia RUBY award twice.