Griffith Review 2025 Emerging Voices competition winners

Griffith Review has announced the winners of its 2025 Emerging Voices competition, which seeks ‘fiction and creative nonfiction that reflect new ideas, fresh voices and bold perspectives’.

The winners, chosen from a shortlist of 14, are:

• James Aird
• Phoebe Cannard-Higgins
• Shelley Eves
• Miriam Webster.

Aird is of European and Yugambeh descent and works as a lawyer in Brisbane; Cannard-Higgins is a writer based in Melbourne with a master’s degree in creative and life writing; Eves is a psychologist and writer based on Gadigal land in Sydney; and Webster is a Naarm/Melbourne-based PhD candidate whose debut collection of short stories, The Slip, was published this year (Aniko Press).

The 2025 judges included Griffith Review editorial staff, writer John Morrissey, literary agent Jane Novak and publisher Terri-ann White.

Griffith Review editor Carody Culver said, ‘We received a record number of entries to the 2025 competition, and we were so impressed – as we are every year – with the breadth and quality of those submissions.

‘Emerging Voices is an invaluable way for us to discover and platform new writing talent, and we can’t wait to share the winning stories with our readers.’

The winning works are set to be published across Griffith Review editions in 2026 and the winners will share a prize pool of $20,000.

Last year’s winners were Lily Holloway, Sarah Kanake, Myles McGuire, Kobi Simpson and Emily Tsokos Purtill.

More information about the competition is available on the Griffith Review website.

Category: Awards Local news