Woollahra Digital Literary Award

“This year’s entries were a delightful mix of long and short form fiction - even some micro-fiction which was just fascinating. From historical and contemporary to post-apocalyptic and futuristic, historical, crime and romance - even what I would call a reimagined folk tale - there was so much to love! Of particular note was that several of the shortlisted works dealt with historical war/conflict and the how the consequences of those events echo through time - making for compelling reading in the light of the current geo-political climate” –Claudine Tinellis

• Jo Havens, The Piano in the Tree, Thirteen Books
• EJ Delaney, Forbidden Voices, Cast of Wonders
• Nancy Cunningham, Crossing the Bridge, Escape Publishing
• Helen Hopcroft, The Nights, Spineless Wonders
• Bill Powell, While the Sun Sets, self-published
• Sean O'Leary, Coming Home, Close to the Bone Publishing

"There are so many ways in which a nonfiction work can be and do. I found so many of the entries deeply moving, deeply interesting, and deeply insightful. A genuine thank you to all the writers who entered this year.

I was especially struck by the following works for their remarkable demonstration of spirit, stylistic intrepidity, innovative deployment of form, and/or their astonishing ability to connect the dots across memories, events, people, places, and cultural objects." –Tiffany Tsao

• Dani Netherclift, Read as a boy, Portside Review
• EJ Clarence, Dovetails, Overland
• Elias Greig, Freehold, Overland
• Lucy Van, Agent of the Year, Liminal Magazine
• James Ley, Alienation is the Philistinism of the Intellectual, Sydney Review of Books

“This year's submissions were bursting with poems that took great risk, poems that walked their truths on a knife’s edge, poems that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end and poems that made me drop to my knees. The subjects ranged from devastating notes on the rental crisis, to Punctuation as Organised Violence; from poems about a school musical performance that could never have a black dido to poems where lungs blow air the shape of chandeliers. As I made my way through the poems I’d stick the short list potentials on my wall with blu-tac. The wall ended up papered with so many I could no longer see the wall. But a shortlist is meant to be a short list (the clue is in the name). I want to send deep gratitude to every poet who submitted this year––each of your poems has sketched an indelible contour on the ordnance survey map of my heart.” – Ali Whitelock

• Anna Jacobson, 23 Vignettes on the rental crisis, Island
  
• Natalie Damjanovich-Napoleon, Immigration Triction, Australian Book Review
• Caroline Williamson, Dido, Overland
• Cameron Colwell, Galaga, Cordite Poetry Review
• Ouyang Yu, Fragments, Kalliope X
• Koraly Dimitriadis, Yiayia Mou, SBS
• Sara M. Saleh, Punctuation as Organised Violence, Meanjin
• Coco X Huang, Three Lessons, Meanjin
• Stephanie Powell, Notes from Greenland, The Suburban Review
• Grace Hu, Soliloquy to a friend/Shake the baby, Cordite Poetry Review
• Angelita Biscotti, SORRY IM JUST A BASIC HYSTERIC!!!!!!!! a love & farewell letter to the clyde hotel on cardigan, Cordite Poetry Review

“This year the entries largely explored topics and ideas expressed through poetic language, imagery and sound. A quality shared by each of the shortlisted submissions was an inherent sense of beauty. The sense of beauty sometimes belied the ugliness of the subject matter on display. They were provocative, interesting, ambitious and artistic, tackling contemporary issues and conversations.

The use of innovative digital technology however was restrained and subtle, some to great effect and others not quite so. The artistic and literary merit of some of the submissions was self-evident but I struggled to ascertain what was digitally innovative about the delivery and presentation of the story at times.

There was one entry whose innovative approach and ambition stood out as fresh and captivating, exciting and visionary.” – Brett Osmond

• Alinta Krauth, The Songbird Speaks, The Digital Review
• Mez Breeze, _Prog[W]res[tle]s_, Electronic Literature Organization
• Zenobia Frost, Housing Simulator 2023, The Suburban Review

We are excited to announce Bolinda/BorrowBox as the first proud sponsor of the Woollahra Digital Literary Award for 2024. Bolinda is a world-leading audiobook and technology company. Through the innovative BorrowBox app, it offers an exceptional range of audiobooks, which you can access with your library membership.

Their generous sponsorship raises this year's prize pool to $9,500, expanding the award's scope and impact. It also means our Readers' Choice winner will now take home $750.

Entries open: Friday 17 May 2024

Entries close: Thursday 15 August 2024

Shortlist announced: Friday 8 November 2024

Winners announced: Tuesday 26 November 2024

Fiction ($3,000 prize)
A short story, short story collection, novella or novel - published in the first instance online or in an electronic format that can be accessed on a computer, tablet or mobile device. Novella or short story entries, 3,000-30,000 words. Novels over 30,000 words can be entered by providing a PDF sample of 1-2 chapters. Judges may request access to full novel for reading based on initial read of a sample.

Non-Fiction ($3,000 prize)
A monograph, collection of essays or a long essay - published in the first instance online or in an electronic format that can be accessed on a computer, tablet or mobile device. 3,000-30,000 words. Longer digital monographs can be entered by providing a PDF sample of 1-2 chapters. Judges may request access to full monograph for reading based on initial read of a sample.

Poetry ($1,500 prize)
Works of poetry published in the first instance online or in an electronic format that can be accessed on a computer, tablet or mobile device. Video and multimedia poems accepted, as well as text-based poetry that has been published online in the first instance. Maximum word count is 3,000 words. There is no minimum word count. 

Digital Innovation ($2,000 prize)
Works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry (or a hybrid of these) published in the first instance online or in an electronic format that can be accessed on a computer, tablet or mobile device. This is a professional writing category where digital technology is used in an innovative way to enhance written storytelling. We are looking for works that seamlessly integrate digital elements in the story in a new and dynamic way to generate mood, tone and genre.

Entries can solely be entered into the Digital Innovation Category if they don't easily meet the criteria for Fiction, Non-Fiction or Poetry (above).

The Readers’ Choice Award is an additional prize of $750 that is offered once the shortlist is announced. This Award invites everyone in the community to read the shortlist and cast a vote for their favourite entry.

Meet our judges:

Fiction: Claudine Tinellis

Claudine Tinellis is a Sydney-based author, podcaster and presenter/moderator. A former corporate lawyer, Claudine ventured into the world of publishing in 2014 as the editor of Coastal Chef: Culinary Art of Seaweed & Algae in the 21st Century. In the years since, Claudine has dedicated herself to writing fiction and finding varying ways to support the world of Australian literature. She is an executive founding member of the Northern Beaches Readers Festival and has moderated for many book launches and other festivals. With more than 270 different authors interviewed to date, Claudine's podcast Talking Aussie Books is a popular program  bringing readers and writers of Australian Fiction together. 

Non-Fiction: Tiffany Tsao

Tiffany Tsao is a writer and literary translator, and the erstwhile editor of The Circular – a Sydney Review of Books newsletter aimed at keeping the best Australian digital nonfiction in circulation. Her novel Under Your Wings was longlisted for the Ned Kelly Award. Her translation work was awarded the 2023 NSW Premier's Translation Prize and the 2023 PEN Translation Prize. She has a Ph.D. in English from UC-Berkeley.

Poetry: Ali Whitelock

Ali Whitelock is a Scottish poet and writer. Her poetry collection, the lactic acid in the calves of your despair is long listed for the ALS Gold Medal for an outstanding literary work in 2020 and is published by Wakefield Press. Her debut collection, and my heart crumples like a coke can (also Wakefield Press) has a forthcoming UK edition by Polygon, UK. Her memoir, poking seaweed with a stick and running away from the smell (Wakefield Press & Polygon) was launched at Sydney Writers' Festival to critical acclaim. She has just released her third book of poetry, a brief letter to the sea about a couple of things.

Digital Innnovation: Brett Osmond

Brett Osmond has been Managing Director at creative and digital agency, Leading Hand Design since 2016. He is a former Marketing and Publicity Director at Penguin Random House where he became Head of Digital and was part of the ebooks leadership team. Brett was Director of the Federal Government’s Books Alive campaign.

The Woollahra Digital Literary Award is open to all Australian Residents aged 16 years and over, who have published work online in the first instance in last two years.

Submitted works must be available online as: .epub, .pbd, .mobi/azw, .ibooks or .pdf file from a known e-book vendor or platform (such as iBookstore, Google Play, Amazon, Bookworld, Kobo, Baker & Taylor or Overdrive), or as an multimedia piece, story, article, essay or poetry available on an online magazine, journal or website that has an editorial selection process.

Please note: Entrants must provide a URL to the web location where digital work can be accessed as proof of publication. It is the responsibility of each entrant to provide a working URL. Only works that were published in a digital format in the first instance will be accepted for judging.

Check the conditions of entry and frequently asked questions.

We are currently accepting contributions and partnership proposals for the 2024 Woollahra Digital Literary Award. For information on levels of support and reciprocal benefits, please review our Award Sponsorship Package(PDF, 3MB) . 

Woollahra Libraries operates under the Council’s endorsed Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) Fund(PDF, 435KB) and Donations and Sponsorship Policy(PDF, 673KB).