Young Writers' Award

Meet the five judges

Erin Gough

Award-winning author of three books for young adults: The Flywheel, which won the Ampersand Prize, Amelia Westlake, winner of the Readings Young Adult Book Prize and the NSW Premier’s Ethel Turner Prize for Young Adult Fiction, and Into the Mouth of the Wolf, her most recently published work in May 2024.

Helena Fox

Novelist, poet and creative writing mentor. Her debut novel, How it Feels to Float, won the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Award and Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Writing for Young Adults. Her second novel, The Quiet and the Loud, won the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature in 2024.

Jaclyn Moriarty

International best-selling author of novels for children, young adults and adults, including the Kingdoms and Empires series. Her books have won the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award, the Queensland Premier’s Award, the Aurealis Award and other prizes, and named as CBCA Honour Books and Boston Globe/Hornbook Honor books.

Sue Whiting

Acclaimed children’s and young adult author, and editor with over twenty years experience. She is the author of the bestselling book Missing and the award-winning A Swim in the Sea. The Book of Chance was shortlisted for the 2021 CBCA Book of the Year Awards and Highly Commended in the 2021 Davitt Awards.

Will Kostakis

Will Kostakis was just nineteen years old when his first novel was released and he’s been writing (and rewriting) ever since. His latest novel, We Could Be Something, won the 2024 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Literature, was shortlisted for the Victorian and New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards and the Queensland Literary Award.

Young Writers' Award

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