For those with a love of writing there’s still time to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and enter the 2020 Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Awards.
Submissions have been extended until Sunday 31 May 2020, giving emerging writers more time to polish up their poems or spruce up their short stories.
Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the Creative Writing Awards were established to encourage emerging writers to share their stories and to celebrate Melbourne’s status as a UNESCO City of Literature.
“Melbourne is known for its coffee culture and its love of Aussie Rules but we are also renowned the world over for producing superb writers,” the Lord Mayor said.
“It is important that the City of Melbourne continues to encourage and support the growth of our city’s emerging writers. These awards not only recognise incredible individual talents but also the institutions that have helped foster them, such as our city libraries. These institutions play an integral role as places of learning, encouragement, curiosity and creativity.”
This year the Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Award categories are:
- The Dorothy Porter Award for Poetry
- Narrative Non-Fiction (No more than 5000 words)
- Short Story set in Melbourne (No more than 5000 words)
- Life Writing Award for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers (No more than 5000 words)
- Feature – Script or Play (No more than 30 pages)
Winning entries for each category will receive a $2000 prize. The overall winner of the Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Award will win an additional $10,000.
“I am looking forward to reading the works of Melbourne’s emerging writers and the diversity of the stories they tell,” the Lord Mayor said. “Importantly, I will be looking for original and captivating pieces of writing for each of the categories.”
Melbourne has a proud history of great Australian writing, including the works of Helen Garner, Christos Tsiolkas, George Johnston and Alice Pung. Melbourne City of Literature research shows Melburnians consume more books, magazines and newspapers per capita than any other Australian city. Melbourne also has the highest concentration of community book clubs in the country.
