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.
First Nations and LGBTQIA+ Prizes: Luke Patterson
Luke Patterson is a Gamilaroi poet, educator and musician living on Gadigal lands. His poetry has appeared in Cordite, Plumwood Mountain, Rabbit, Running Dog and The Suburban Review. You will also find his work in anthologies including NANGAMAY dream MANA gather DJURALI grow as well as Best of Australian Poems 2023. 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.
Greater Western Sydney Prize: Ally Burnham
Ally Burnham is an AWGIE-award winning screenwriter, novelist and author of comics. A NIDA graduate (2016, Masters, Writing for Performance), she is also the Creative Producer at Westwords – Western Sydney’s literature development organisation. Ally is best known for her feature film Unsound, and is the lead writer on Metropius. She is a contributing author and editor to The New Mythic, which was nominated for two 2023 Aurealis Awards. She is a producer and guest on the podcast Prose & Cons, and also teaches screenwriting for film and television at NIDA Open.
