Inaugural Spiers Prize shortlist
UWA Publishing (UWAP) has announced the shortlist for the inaugural Spiers Prize, as well as some changes to the award.
The publisher announced that “due to the enthusiastic number of submissions, and Gail Spiers’s generosity, UWA Publishing will be awarding 2 prizes this year: one to an author of middle-grade fiction and one to an author of young adult fiction. Both winners will receive the original prize amount of $5000 each. From 2026 onwards, the Spiers Prize will alternate categories annually”.
The shortlisted titles, chosen from over 120 submissions, are:
Middle-grade
- “A Girl, a Boy, a Horse and a Zorse” by Rebeca Green
- “Bella’s Rock” by Verity Croker
- “The Lost Boy of Divine” by Tracey Sloan
- “Mabi” by Ola Kwintowski
- “The Magpie’s Song” by Julia Wakefield
- “What Sand is Made Of” by Pamela Ueckerman
Young adult
- “Bright Flickering Lights” by DJ Blackmore
- “Flying Hearts” by Rico Craig
- “The Girl, The Calico and The Soldier” by Zahina Maghrabi
- “The Lovely Astronaut” by Natalia Hawk
- “One Arabian Girl” by Maha Sidaoui
- “Two Sides and the Truth” by Kylie Hannant.
Judges Kate Pickard, Danielle Binks and Sally Murphy said, “the YA entries have strong own voices and creative approaches to issues facing young adults while many of the middle-grade entries explore the natural world and our relationship with the environment. All of the shortlisted entries are of an extremely high calibre and show the breadth of children’s writing talent in Australia.”
The Spiers Prize is a national unpublished children’s fiction manuscript prize named after Australian primary school teacher and philanthropist Gail Spiers. Winners are offered a publishing contract with UWAP and a cash prize of $5000.
The winner of the inaugural Spiers prizes will be announced in November.
More information is available on the UWA publishing website.
Category: Awards Local news
