Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing
The Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing (NPCW) is awarded every two years and builds on the Shire's strong tradition of supporting contemporary Australian writing.
Entries are accepted in the following streams:
- Fiction - with open, local and youth categories
- A changing genre award - with open, local and youth categories. In 2022 that category is Poetry.
The competition awards the best work in each category
- The Alan Marshall Short Story Award is awarded to the best short story in the ‘open’ section.
- A Mayor's Award may also be awarded.
The winning entries are published in an anthology. The NPCW is presented in association with Yarra Plenty Regional Library.
2022 Judges
Alan Marshall Short Story Prize
Tim Richards
Tim Richards is a Melbourne-based writer, script consultant and screenwriting teacher. He is the author of three story collections. His latest book is Approximate Life: The Prince and Other Stories (Ligature, 2022).
Bec Kavanagh
Bec Kavanagh is a Melbourne-based writer and academic. She has written fiction and non-fiction for a number of publications including Westerly, Meanjin, Review of Australian Fiction and the Shuffle anthology.
Nillumbik Prize Contemporary Writing – Poetry
Cassandra Atherton
Cassandra Atherton is an international expert on the prose poetry form and an award winning prose poet. Cassandra has authored and edited over thirty critical and creative books and has been invited to edit twelve special editions of leading refereed journals.
Tony Birch
Tony Birch is the author of three novels: the bestselling The White Girl; Ghost River, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing; and Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. In 2021 Tony will publish two new books; a poetry collection, Whisper Songs, and a new book of short stories, Dark As Last Night (both with UQP).
How to enter
Entries for the 2022 NPCW are now open. Entry to 'local' and 'youth' categories is free. The fee for 'Open' entry is $25 for each submission.
Read the full terms and conditions(PDF, 157KB)
Entry, including payment if required, is via the online form only.
Hurry - entries close November 7.
Enter here >
Read the anthology for 2020
The Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing Anthology 2020 features all the winning pieces along with introductions from the category judges.
View the Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing Anthology 2020(PDF, 1MB)
Winners for 2020
Congratulations to the winners of the Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing 2020
- Alan Marshall Short Story Award (Best work of fiction - open category)
Dominic Amerena - Show Don't Tell
- Best work of fiction - local
Catherine Padmore - Work Experience
- Best work of fiction - youth
Irene Lu - Hiraeth
- Best work of creative non-fiction - open
Anna Jacobson - Songs from the Vault
- Best work of creative non-fiction - local
Alessandra Prunotto -The Things We Leave Behind
Previous anthologies