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The Best Australian Yarn is a national short story competition where entrants from anywhere in Australia can submit an original short fiction story of any genre, no longer than 2500 words, to win part of the $80,000 prize pool.

Yes, there is no entry fee.

While the competition's title includes "Yarn," we welcome short stories of any type or genre, as long as they are original fiction.

Yes, if you fit the criteria for one of the sub-categories. You will need to tick the relevant box when submitting your story. Entries into these sub-categories will automatically go into the pool to be considered for the shortlist for the major prize.

Entrants aged between 12 and 18 can submit their story into the Youth Prizes. Entrants for this category must be 12 or over and 18 and under on the date when they submit their entry.

Select your age bracket, there are two prizes, one for 12-14 year olds and one for 15-18 year olds. Entrants who live outside a major city (see criteria in the Q&A below) can submit their story into the Regional Australia category.

To enter the First Nations Storytelling Prize, an entrant must be of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person and have been accepted as such by the community in which you live, or formerly lived.

To be eligible for the Navitas ESL Prize, the entrant must speak a language other than English at home. The Navitas ESL Prize is designed to encourage writers for whom English isn’t their first language to express themselves in written form.

If you fit the criteria for all three categories, you can tick all relevant boxes when submitting your story.

To be eligible for the regional prize, your home address must be outside a major city, which are classified in this competition as MM1 under the Modified Monash Model. You can search your location here to find out if you qualify.

Backed by Navitas, Australia’s foremost English as a second language provider, the Navitas ESL Prize is open to writers who speak a language other than English at home. This often includes migrants, refugees, or individuals from multicultural backgrounds who are learning English in addition to their mother language.

The Navitas ESL Prize is designed to encourage writers for which English isn’t their first language to express themselves in written form. The aim is to provide an opportunity for writers to practise and develop their English language skills while expressing their creativity through storytelling.

The competition is open to both experienced and inexperienced writers. For many writers who are migrants or refugees, this may be their first experience with the English language literary community. However, professional writers are also encouraged to participate and share their knowledge and experience with others.

All entries must be written in English. However, writers are encouraged to use their own voice and to incorporate elements of their native language or culture into their writing. This can add depth and richness to the story and can help to showcase the writer's unique perspective.

We recognise the generational connection to land, sea, and air that Aboriginal people had and continue to have in Australia since time immemorial. We want to recognise the history and celebrate the future of our First Nations people, raise their voices, and help them share their stories.

For too long many of our Australian history books have not reflected to the truth. Our books have not included Aboriginal history from Aboriginal people, First Nations perspectives in novels was uncommon, and historically, many of our stories were silenced.

We want to change the narrative and be a part of the journey of reconciliation to educate Australians of the truth of our shared past and we want to re-write history to represent all Australians, including our First Nations people. We are not proud of the past traumas Aboriginal people have faced, but the truth needs to be shared in a healing and reconciliation journey.

We want to help facilitate the truth telling of our history and future with our First Peoples. The West Australian in conjunction with Navitas, is including a new category in The Best Australian Yarn to incorporate First Nations storytelling.

We respect and deeply value the contribution of First Nations people and want to hear your story. This is a place for people of all abilities, and where English may not be a first language, to come together and share their story in an inclusive and safe place.

We are committed to our First Nations storytellers from remote communities, regional towns and urban cities where writing is an obstacle to storytelling. We would like you to submit your story in a way that suits you, it can reflect your style of thinking, quirky nature and the spelling which reflects you. We are open to and support your creative process.

We want to hear stories from our First Peoples and stories which reflect who we are, historically, currently and who we can be in the future. Your story can be based on real situations, imaginative or futuristic. All stories are important and deserve to be heard. We want to reflect this in this new prize to recognise the importance of our First Nations people in this great nation we call home. The First Nations Storytelling Prize is supported by Magabala Books, Australia's leading Indigenous publishing house.

There are no specific formatting restrictions or guidelines for entering the short story competition except for entering the Comic Prizes.

The comics can be made digitally or by hand but with the intention of being printed. They will be submitted digitally, and laid out as A4 page(s) at 300pdi. If you are scanning your work, please make sure to adjust and re-crop it appropriately to ensure high quality and to match these dimensions. LENGTH: 1 A4 page to maximum 4 A4 pages, WITH up to 35 panels. Please note – comics will be judged on their storytelling merits, not on length. There is no minimum word count requirement in the comics entry – the work can be wordless. Any text must be easily legible at print size.

Yes. The Best Australian Yarn is for fiction writing.

There are no restrictions on theme for the competition. The stories can be on any subject and in any style, as long as they are original, unpublished and written in English.

Stories must be no longer than 2500 words. Any entries exceeding the maximum word count (2500 words) will not be considered. There is no minimum word count.

You must be 12 years of age by May 4, 2024 to enter the Best Australian Yarn. Parents and guardians may not enter a story on behalf of a child under 12.

No. The competition is open to all writers, both published and unpublished, aged 12 and over.

There is no limit on how many stories someone can enter, as long as the author has followed the terms and conditions.

Authors can submit an entry with a pseudonym, but they must also provide their legal names as a requirement of entering the competition. The use of a pseudonym if an author is published as part of the longlist or as a finalist may be allowed but it will require approval from the Promoter. For anymore clarification, please email bestaustralianyarn@swm.com.au

No. Make sure you have finalised your story before you submit it, because no changes can be made to it once it has been received.

You can submit your story here.

All entries must be submitted no later than 11.59pm AWST on August 12, 2024.

Please email bestaustralianyarn@swm.com.au and we will help you.

Yes. All short stories submitted must be the author’s own original, unpublished work and will be checked by a plagiarism and AI tracker. Use of AI to create a short story is against the terms and conditions of entry and will lead to disqualification from the competition.

No. Any use of chatbots or AI is strictly prohibited. All entries will go through an AI tracker and any entry found in breach of the terms and conditions will be disqualified from the competition.

No. Stories entered in The Best Australian Yarn must be written by an individual and cannot be collaborations.

First, entries for the main prize will go through a longlist panel of experienced professionals, which will select the best 50 short stories.

Those entries will then go to the Prize Jury, who will determine the final shortlist of 10 and the winners in the various categories.

Entries for the First Nations Storytelling Prize, the Navitas ESL Prize, the Comic Prizes and the Youth Prizes will be judged separately by selected judges who are highly regarded in the relevant fields and who have expertise in evaluating these particular genres. These judges will pass on their recommendations to the Prize Jury to be judged as part of the main prize and shortlist.

Click here to meet the judges.

Anthony De Ceglie, Editor in Chief of The West Australian, will chair the Prize Jury, which will also include representatives from Upswell Publishing, Magabala Books, along with award winning authors Robert Drewe, Holden Sheppard and best selling author Rachael Johns.

The Navitas ESL Prize judging will be led by Miles Hitchcock, a senior teacher at Navitas English has taught ESL for over 20 years in Japan, China and Australia, most recently on Academic English pathways into Universities and TAFE. Miles is also a previous winner of the Melbourne Age Short Story Award and the Curtin Fiction Award. Miles will be joined in judging this prize with Basim Shamaon JP, a highly respected community leader in South West Sydney, whose work with migrants and refugees is his life, passion, identity. Basim is the Stakeholder Engagement Manager at Navitas Skilled Futures and recently released his own book, From Iraq to Australia: Jewels from My Journey.

First Nations lawyer, columnist and academic, Emma Garlett, a Nyiyaparli-Yamatji-Nyungar woman from Geraldton, WA, is the ambassador for the First Nations Storytelling Prize and will be judging this prize in collocation with select First Nations judges, including dual Miles Franklin winner Kim Scott, who are experienced in this genre.

The Youth Prizes will be judged with a team of experts with help from the WA Branch of The Children’s Book Counsel of Australia and the Department of Education WA/ Premier’s Reading Challenge. The Comic Story Prizes head judge will be Stuart Medley who will coordinate an expert field of judges in this category with support from the Perth Comic Arts Festival.

The judging criteria will be set by the Prize Jury, and will consider, among other things, readability and originality. Stories should entertain and challenge through a clear understanding of what it takes to make a compelling story.

The evaluation process will be ‘blind’ which means the entrant’s name will not be known by the panel of judges.

No. All stories must be entered by their authors. Please encourage your friend/relative to enter their story in the Best Australian Yarn competition for their chance to win.

No. The Best Australian Yarn short story competition is expected to attract a large number of entries and while all will be read and assessed, it is unfortunately not feasible to provide feedback to everyone. 

Yes, but only if absolutely necessary. Please put them at the end and use them sparingly. The text used from references will be included in the word count.

Yes. There is a new category for Comic stories this year.

No. Entries can be creative and original in style but must have a short story narrative structure.

This means that an entry to the competition cannot have been published before in any form – this includes in print and online, such as a journal, magazine, newspaper or anthology or on a personal blog or website.

If you submitted your story for assessment in a writing course, but it has not been distributed further, this does not constitute publication and you can enter it in The Best Australian Yarn.

If you have posted work in progress shots on social media for an entry into the Comic Story Prizes, please contact bestaustralianyarn@swm.com.au for more clarification.

No. A story that has been entered for another prize is not eligible to be submitted to The Best Australian Yarn. Please contact us at bestaustralianyarn@swm.com.au if you are unsure about eligibility.

No. Entries must remain unpublished and not be entered for other prizes for the duration of The Best Australian Yarn 2024 competition. Winners are expected to be announced by the end of November, 2024.

No. You cannot resubmit an entry that has already gone through the judging process of The Best Australian Yarn.

You will need to create a new entry and can submit the short story you started work on last year, as long as it follows the terms and conditions and hasn't been published elsewhere or entered into any other competitions.

During the selection process, some entries will be published in The West Australian newspaper, some with custom illustrations and design treatment. By submitting your story, you give us permission to use it in this way and if published in the newspaper you will receive a $200 honorarium. By publishing a story in The West Australian, it does not mean that the entrant is entitled to an award or prize. You will still, however, be eligible to win the prize money.

All writers retain the copyright to their story and can use it in any way they choose, after the competition is over. By entering The Best Australian Yarn, you are licensing us the rights to potentially publish your story. Please see the full terms and conditions for more details.

The longlist of the top 50 entries is expected to be announced by November 2024. If your story is selected you will be contacted by the contact details supplied when submitting the entry.

The shortlist is expected to be announced in November 2024. If your story is selected, you will be contacted by the contact details supplied when submitting the entry.

The winners are expected to be announced by the end of November, 2024. Winners will be contacted by the contact details supplied when submitting the entry.

No. If you have not been contacted by the end of November, 2024, then you are not a finalist in The Best Australian Yarn 2024.

The prize pool for 2024 is worth a total of $80,000 (AUD) – making it the world’s richest short story prize.

This will be split in the following way:

The winner of The Best Australian Yarn 2024 will win a grand prize of $50,000.

The runner-up will receive $4,000.

The remaining eight shortlisted stories will each be awarded $1,000.

The Regional Australia Prize, for the best story from an entrant living outside a major city, is $3,000.

The First Nations Storytelling Prize, for the best story from an entrant who is of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, is $3,000.

The Navitas English as a Second Language Prize, who an entrant for whom English isn’t their first language, is $3,000.

The Youth Prizes are for entrants aged 12-18. One prize, for $1500, is for an entrant aged between 12-14 years old. The other prize is also $1500 for an entrant aged between 15-18 years old.

The Comic Story Prize winner will receive $3,000.

The Comic Story Youth Prizes are for entrants aged 12-18. One prize, for $1500, is for an entrant aged between 12-14 years old. The other prize is also $1500 for an entrant aged between 15-18 years old.

Selected entries will be published in The West Australian and its affiliates at the discretion of West Australian Newspapers. You will be contacted before your story is to be published.

Entrants should read the full terms and conditions before submitting their story as they contain important information about your entry. These can be found here.