King wins EWF Speculate Prize

The Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF), in partnership with RMIT University, has announced Melissa King as the winner of the inaugural Speculate Prize for Emerging Writers for her short work ‘The Bungalow’.

Chosen from a shortlist of five, King receives $1500, inclusive of a $250 stipend towards a week-long writing residency at the RMIT McCraith House on the Mornington Peninsula, a pass to the 2025 National Writers’ Conference and a festival pass for performance events at the 2025 Emerging Writers’ Festival.

A highly commended award was also awarded to Sophie Grant for ‘For Having Teeth’.

EWF artistic director Jess Zanoni said: ‘Melissa’s winning story, ‘The Bungalow’, is extraordinary in its ability to merge speculative, fantastical storytelling with the stark, truthful realities of contemporary life. Beautiful, comedic, dark and transportive, ‘The Bungalow’ was unanimously a highlight for the judges and readers of the Speculate Prize.’

King said: ‘I have loved stories about ghosts, aliens and robots since I was a young child, and began writing spooky short stories on my grandmother’s old typewriter when I was in primary school. I have dreamed of becoming an author ever since. I have not felt confident to show my writing to anyone until quite recently, so I was excited to learn of a competition devoted to speculative writing. Being announced as the winner is a huge honour and boost to my confidence. It inspires me to keep writing and submitting work for publication, and I’m stoked to learn that the judges enjoyed my story enough to select it as the winner.’

The Speculate Prize is ‘a brand-new literary prize open to Australian emerging writers studying at TAFE or university who are keen to share short work that speaks to the otherness, complexity and expansiveness of “speculation” through literature in either content, genre or form,’ said the organisers.

More details, and the full text of ‘The Bungalow’, are available on the EWF website.

Category: Awards Local news