Young Tasmanian Writers' Prize 2026
Sponsored by Forty South Publishing and the Tasmanian Association for the Teaching of English (TATE)
The Young Tasmanian Writers’ Prize is a short story competition open to Tasmanians enrolled in Years 7–12 at schools that are current members of TATE or who are home-schooled.
Entries are now closed
Prizes will be announced in late September 2026 at an event hosted by the City of Hobart.
The winning entry in each section will receive the Lord Mayor’s Prize ($300 in the Senior Section and $200 in the Junior Section).
The Jane College Prose Award is awarded in each section ($200 in the Senior Section and $100 in the Junior Section)
Two runners-up in each section will receive a $35 Fullers Bookshop voucher.
Winning stories will be published in Up and Coming/26, a print anthology co-sponsored by Forty South Publishing and TATE.
JUDGES
Senior Section
Kyle Perry is a writer based on the north-west coast of Tasmania. He has grown up around the Tasmanian bush and seas, with the landscape and ocean a key feature of his writing and his spare time. His debut novel, The Bluffs, has been translated into six languages. It was shortlisted for the Dymocks Book of the Year and the Indie’s Debut Fiction Book of the Year and was longlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards’ General Fiction Book of the Year. Both his novels are currently in development for screen adaption.
Junior Section
Judith Ridge is internationally recognised as one of Australia’s leading experts on literature for children and young adults. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Judith has worked as an English teacher, teacher librarian, children’s book and magazine editor, youth arts program coordinator and teacher of creative writing. She is the commissioning and contributing editor of The Book That Made Me (Walker Books 2016). Judith is a Churchill Fellow and is currently working on a PhD on Australian children’s fantasy fiction.
Jane College Prose Award
Adam Sharp is an Australian-British writer originally from Manchester. He’s lived in London, Newcastle, Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland, the Channel Islands, the Canary Islands, Mexico and Nashville (he’s not very good at staying still). He’s currently the Hedberg Writer-in-Residence at the University of Tasmania, where he’s working on a memoir. Adam has had more than 30 jobs. Some of the things he’s been paid to do are catching footballs, washing dishes, juggling bottles and walking on stilts. He found his way to writing, and has since published a piece of memoir in Common People: An Anthology of Working-Class Writers, and two books written entirely in lists, The Correct Order of Biscuits and The Wheel Is Spinning But the Hamster Is Dead.
Shortlist selection
Sonia Strong lives on the forested slopes of Mount Arthur. She has worked in conservation and alpine/marine park management, as a paramedic and, now, as Assistant Publisher at Forty South Publishing. She is also a metalsmith, writer and painter. She has published several children’s books through Forty South, including “Tazzie The Turbo Chook Finds Her Feet”. You can follow her on Instagram, @soniastrongartist
