Judging Panel
Overall Prize: Will Kostakis
Will Kostakis is an award-winning author for young adults. He’s been at it fifteen years, but his mum insists it’s just a phase and any day now, he’ll pursue a real career. He signed his first book deal in high school. Loathing Lola was released when he was just nineteen. His contemporary novels, The First Third and The Sidekicks, warmed (then broke) hearts the world over. His first foray into fantasy, the Monuments duology, saw teenagers accidentally killing gods hidden under different Aussie high schools, absorbing their powers, and wrestling with what it means to be gods. We Could Be Something is his latest novel. It’s a humorous yet heart-rending look at family, fame and falling in love.
Shortlist Prize: Josephine Sarvaas
Josephine is a trained teacher qualified in English, history and TESOL, who graduated from the University of Sydney with first class honours. She has been working in private tutoring since 2014 and has nine years’ experience teaching students from kindergarten up to the HSC. She is passionate about helping all students gain confidence in their learning, and believes English is a subject area where all students can be empowered to develop their self-expression. Josephine is also a short story writer whose work has been published in magazines and anthologies. She won first place in NYC Midnight’s Flash Fiction Competition and The Academy of Teachers’ ‘Stories Out of School’ Competition, and was runner up in the 2022 Best Australian Yarn, Australia’s biggest short story contest. Her work has been long-listed for the Grindstone International Novel Prize and the Mslexia Novel Competition.
LGBTQIA+ Prize: Erin Gough
Greater Western Sydney Prize: Ally Burnham
Alexandria (Ally) Burnham is an AWGIE award-winning screenwriter and novelist. She is best known for her feature film Unsound (2020, Apple) and Metropius, a multi-media story world told across animation, comic books and board games. Her debut novel, Swallow, is an historical fiction pirate adventure based on a true Australian story. www.allyburnham.com
EAL/D Prize: Khaled Damag
First Nations Prize: Luke Patterson
Luke Patterson is a Gamilaroi poet, musician and educator living on Gadigal lands. His poetry appears in Cordite Poetry Review, Plumwood Mountain, Rabbit, Red Room and The Suburban Review. He has featured in the anthologies Active Aesthetics, Firefront: first nation’s poetry and power today, and Nangamay Mana Djurali: First Nations LGBTQI+ Poetry. Luke’s research and creative pursuits are grounded in extensive work with First Nations and other community-based organisations across Australia.
Regional Prize: Bonni Que
Bonni is the Story Leader at The Story Island Project, running dynamic in-school storytelling workshops in areas of need around Hobart. She has a background in creative arts and health, with a strong focus on social justice and community development programs. As well as maintaining her own creative practice in writing, music and visual art, Bonni has experience working as an arts facilitator within a range of diverse environments and demographics both across Australia and internationally. She is a strong believer in the power of creative expression as a means of nurturing imagination and cultivating social, cognitive and emotional development.
EAL/D Prize: Khaled Damag
Khaled is a writer and skilled bilingual communicator. He is a Board Member of The Story Island Project—a Hobart-based not-for-profit organisation that nurtures the creativity and writing skills of young Tasmanians—and has served on Amnesty International Australia’s Youth Advisory Group. A graduate of the University of Tasmania (with a Business degree majoring in Finance and Business Economics), Khaled is currently a research and policy officer at RACT, working on advocacy projects in areas such as road safety, mobility and sustainability.
LGBTQIA+ Prize: Gary Lonesborough
Gary Lonesborough is a Yuin man, who grew up on the Far South Coast of NSW as part of a large and proud Aboriginal family. Gary was always writing as a child, and continued his creative journey when he moved to Sydney to study at film school. Gary has experience working in youth work, Aboriginal health, child protection, the disability sector (including experience working in the youth justice system) and the film industry, including working on the feature film adaptation of Jasper Jones. His debut YA novel, The Boy from the Mish, won the Booktopia FAB Debut Book Awards and the Ena Noel Award and was shortlisted for the CBCA Awards, the QLD Literary Awards, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, the Indie Book Awards, the Adelaide Festival Awards, the NSW Premier’s Awards and was selected as a White Raven. It was published in the US in 2022 under the title Ready When You Are. His second novel, We Didn’t Think It Through, was published in 2023.
LGBTQIA+ Prize: Tobias Madden
Originally from Ballarat, Tobias worked for ten years as a performer, touring Australia and New Zealand with musicals such as Mary Poppins, CATS, and Guys and Dolls. He now resides in New York City with his husband, Daniel, and their Cavoodle, Ollie.
In 2019, Tobias edited and published Underdog: #LoveOzYA Short Stories and co-wrote the cabaret show Siblingship. His debut novel, Anything But Fine, was awarded the Australian Association of Family Therapy’s Book Award for Older Readers, was shortlisted for ABIA Book of the Year for Older Readers, was named one of Better Reading’s Top 50 Kids Books, and was included on Bank Street College of Education’s list of Best Children’s Books of the Year (US).
Tobias is a passionate member of the #LoveOzYA and LGBTQ+ communities, and he currently works full-time in book marketing.
Greater Western Sydney Prize: Ally Burnham
Alexandria (Ally) Burnham is an AWGIE award-winning screenwriter and novelist. She is best known for her feature film Unsound (2020, Apple) and Metropius, a multi-media story world told across animation, comic books and board games. Her debut novel, Swallow, is slated for release November 2025. www.allyburnham.com
