Woollahra Digital Literary Award

Nadia Mahjouri for The Miracle, as published in Island Magazine 

"The Miracle by Nadia Mahjouri was the stand-out story -- a startlingly fresh, delicate yet unsparing slice-of-life set in Tasmania in the late 1950s. Narrated through the steady, observant perspective of ten-year-old Lori, we meet her war-torn father, a brother battling 'the Whispers' and (not quite) her absent mother, revealing the cracks forming in the family after two wars. The child's voice treads the line between innocence and noticing; the extraordinary is woven through with the ordinary in her eyes. Mahjouri's prose is beautifully controlled and tender, layering domestic reality with ominous tension. The miracle is survival itself. The ending is quiet, devastating, unforgettable." – Amy Lovat 

About the Author

Nadia Mahjouri is a Moroccan Australian author, podcaster, and counsellor. Her background is in health policy, governance and academia, where her research focused on ethics and feminist philosophy. Her debut novel Half Truth was published in February 2025 by Penguin Random House, and she is a contributor to anthology Emergence, published in 2023 by Hardie Grant. She is the recipient of an Ian Potter Trust Cultural Fellowship in 2024 and a QWC Varuna Fellowship in 2023.

Nadia hosts The Whole Truth: Motherhood and the Writing Life podcast, about how writers manage to keep writing while living in the messy middle of family life, work and creativity. Nadia and her husband live in Hobart/nipaluna with varying combinations of their family which includes three young adults, two school aged children and a puppy called Russell Sprout.

Suri Matondkar for 10 Steps to Becoming an Adult, as published in The Audacity

One of the arresting qualities of 10 Steps to Becoming an Adult is the way Suri Matondkar takes the self-help listicle and turns it inside out. The reader expects instructions, advice, clarity—and is instead given something much more human. In innovative prose that verges on experimental, she frames her vulnerabilities in second person, immersing the reader in the gritty complexities of privilege and oppression and humanness. Becoming an adult, to Matondkar, is a process of shredding the simplistic platitudes the internet might offer, to instead face the horror, mundanity and vagaries of one’s own mental health.  – Ashley Kalagian Blunt  

About the Author

Suri Matondkar is a writer interested in language and identity. She was a 2024 Hot Desk Fellow at the Wheeler Centre and was awarded the 2025 Eric Dark Flagship fellowship by Varuna, The National Writers' House. Her work has been shortlisted for the 2025 UQP Mentorship Prize for Under-represented writers and won the 2024 Lord Mayor's Creative Writing Awards for Narrative Nonfiction. Her writing appears in Roxane Gay’s Emerging Writer Series, Island, Cordite and Kill Your Darlings. She likes stickers, socks and Taylor Swift. She dislikes phone calls.

David Stavanger for Planet Fitness, as published in The Regional Review 

“Let he who has never tried to fit themselves into the skin of another cast the first stone. I won’t lie, I’ve never read a poem set in a gym before, but here we are, right in the eye of this extraordinary hamstring-extension of a poem. Via innocent weight lifting equipment, life, death, fear and the legacy of effort in all their layered and devastating complexity are flexed on unsuspecting dumb bells, electronic stairs & a rowing machine where the poet tries to out-row himself and his past. The poet says, It’s hard not to notice what’s deficient in a mirror. 

 After the first reading of this poem, I re-read it aloud in front of a mirror. My pupils dilate in response. The heart stopping originality of building a home set-up in your father’s skin to be closer and less like him just about ended me. As this poem stretched and tore at its own emotional muscle, my own past muscle traumas reopened and had me reaching for the Ibuprofen and Voltaren gel. The gym’s motivational NO JUDGEMENT HERE plastered on the wall sickens––a clichéd corporate bumper sticker designed to give us something to cling on to as we do our best to stop our lives falling out of the arse of the world. These emotionally and psychologically dense lines juxtaposed with the drab sadness of a smelly gym only serve to highlight the aching beauty, bone crushing sadness and self exploration that’s going on here.

Like set after set of dumb bell reps, reading and re-reading these lines instills the kind of muscularity and strength required to keep on moving through whatever life has thrown at us. I’ve hated the gym since I was a young woman trying to prove and find myself all at once. But this poem, despite the 20kg bicep curl of it, lifts me up and reminds me that poetry is everywhere. It’s in the dead lifts of our pasts and the chin-ups of our present. Perhaps most surprisingly, it’s even in dead skin and a stranger’s sweat, pooling on a vinyl bench.” – Ali Whitelock

About the Author

David Stavanger is a poet, producer, and lapsed psychologist living on Wodi Wodi Dharawal land. He is the co-editor of Solid Air: Australian & New Zealand Spoken Word (UQP, 2019), Admissions: Voices Within Mental Health (Upswell, 2022), and is the author of Case Notes, which won the 2021 Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry—his new collection is The Drop Off (Upswell, 2025). David works as an Artistic Director at Red Room Poetry.  

Tabitha Carvan, Olivia Congdon, Amanda Cox, Ilario Priori and Nic Vevers for The Unexpected Poetry of PhD Acknowledgements, as published by the The Australian National University College of Science

“The Unexpected Poetry of PhD Acknowledgements demonstrates genuine digital elements that augment and advance the reader’s experience of the rather unusual story being told. No other submission goes quite as far with digital narrative elements.” – Brett Osmond 

About the Authors

With expertise in science writing, videography, website development, and illustration, the Science and Medicine Communication Team at the Australian National University uses digital storytelling to bring scientific research to life. Their work has featured many times in the Best Australian Science Writing anthology, Nature Briefing, Australian Geographic and BBC Wildlife, and has won numerous awards including the UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing, and Science magazine's international Dance Your PhD video competition. The team includes Tabitha Carvan, Olivia Congdon, Amanda Cox, Ilario Priori and Nic Vevers.

Announcing Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad as the inaugural Woollahra Libraries Writer in Residence. 

We are delighted to announce our inaugural Woollahra Libraries Writer in Residence, Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad.This program recognises a writer whose creative practice will be meaningfully supported by time and connection within the local area, and who in turn will enrich the creative life of our community. Selection focused on the value of the residency to the writer’s project, their potential contribution to Woollahra’s cultural landscape, and the inspiration they draw from the unique environment of Woollahra.

Oormila is a poet and artist. Her residency project is a poetry collection that responds to Woollahra's coastal landscapes and the echoes of elsewhere from her own lived experience. The collection explores how adopted homes and landscapes can spark memories and associations, becoming bridges to distant places. Through this work, Oormila will investigate the transnational poetic imagination, tracing connections between harbourside paths, architecture, and remembered lands.

“I was so impressed with the shortlisted writers for their breadth of imagination and emotional acuity. Across the selection, there was a palpable sense of experimentation, with stories that push at the edges of realism and form. Memory, identity and perception were strong themes across most of the stories, in those told through a dreamlike lens as well as the stories more concerned with the domestic everyday. Each writer, in some way, played with narrative and psychological boundaries, making the reading experience equal parts challenging and satisfying. A huge congratulations and thank you to each writer -- I hope their work reaches many hearts and minds.” – Amy Lovat

"Every single writer who submitted their creative non-fiction and criticism was worthy of the shortlist at the very least, if not the category’s grand prize. This made the task of judging Herculean, but I relished the opportunity to spend time in the company of such skilful writing, and deeply contemplate the contours of each submission. This year’s entries were urgent, innovative, surprising and challenging, and each made me think about the world through a new lens. My immense congratulations to each of the writers who submitted – we need your words." – Ashley Kalagian Blunt

“Yet another year of dazzling Australian poems with jaw dropping imagery, raw emotional truth and wildly inventive forms that brought a fresh musicality to the world that lately feels devoid of any music at all. There were poems that rocked me to my core and others that devastated and delighted me. As a writer, they also inspired me. Reading and spending time with the 2025 entries was an undeniable privilege. Selecting a shortlist, the most difficult task of all.” – Ali Whitelock

“In recent years we have seen gaming, animation, video and smartphone applications find their way into literary works in fascinating and exciting ways. The 2025 submissions demonstrated both literary merit and creativity, with several works showing imaginative engagement with digital storytelling. ...I began my career in book publishing in the early 1990s when digital publishing was a hot topic. …The landscape has changed significantly since then. What it means to innovate in this space has also changed.” – Brett Osmond

Fiction ($2,500 prize)
A short story, short story collection, novella or novel - published in the first instance online or in an electronic format that can be accessed on a computer, tablet or mobile device. Novella or short story entries, 2,000-30,000 words. Longer works will be considered for judging, but the work may not be read by judges in its entirety during the initial judging period, unless work is deemed of a high literary standard and is considered in the running for longlisting for the Fiction Award.

Non-Fiction ($2,500 prize)
A monograph, collection of essays or a longform essay - published in the first instance online or in an electronic format that can be accessed on a computer, tablet or mobile device. 2,000-30,000 words. Longer digital monographs will be considered for judging, but the work may not be read by judges in it’s entirety during the initial judging period, unless work is deemed of a high literary standard and is considered in the running for longlisting for the Non-Fiction Award.

Poetry ($1,000 prize)
Works of poetry published in the first instance online or in an electronic format that can be accessed on a computer, tablet or mobile device. Video and multimedia poems accepted, as well as text-based poetry that has been published online in the first instance. Maximum word count is 3,000 words. There is no minimum word count. 

Digital Innovation ($1,500 prize)
Works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry (or a hybrid of these) published in the first instance online or in an electronic format that can be accessed on a computer, tablet or mobile device. This is a professional writing category where digital technology is used in an innovative way to enhance written storytelling. We are looking for works that seamlessly integrate digital elements in the story in a new and dynamic way to generate mood, tone and genre.

Entries can solely be entered into the Digital Innovation Category if they don't easily meet the criteria for Fiction, Non-Fiction or Poetry (above).

The Readers’ Choice Award is an additional prize of $250 that is offered once the shortlist is announced. This Award invites everyone in the community to read the shortlist and cast a vote for their favourite entry.

Meet our judges:

Fiction: Amy Lovat

Amy Lovat is the author of Mistakes and Other Lovers and Program Manager of the Newcastle Writers Festival. She holds a PhD in English and Writing and lives with her wife, a brood of animals, and thousands of books across unceded Awabakal and Gadigal Country in NSW. Her second novel, Big Feelings, is due out in July 2025.

Non-Fiction: Ashley Kalagian Blunt

Ashley Kalagian Blunt is the bestselling author of Dark Mode, a psychological thriller published internationally and shortlisted for the 2024 ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year, the Ned Kelly Awards, and the Danger Award. It was also voted number 20 in the Better Reading Top 100. Her other thrillers include Cold Truth and Like Follow Die. Ashley is also the author of the memoir How to Be Australian and My Name Is Revenge, which was a finalist in the 2018 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award. Her work appears in Sydney Morning Herald, Overland, Kill Your Darlings, and more. She co-hosts the podcast James and Ashley Stay at Home and teaches writing workshops across Australia.

Poetry: Ali Whitelock

Ali Whitelock is a Scottish poet living in an old church out west with her French, low-carb, chain-smoking husband. She’s published three poetry collections with Wakefield Press and a memoir about growing up in Scotland, launched at Sydney Writers’ Festival and in the UK. Her poetry appears in journals around the world. She likes cats, also dogs—and while she’s long favoured red wine, lately it’s been white. Go figure.

Digital Innnovation: Brett Osmond

Brett Osmond is Managing Director at creative and digital agency Leading Hand Design. He was formerly Marketing and Publicity Director at Penguin Random House, where he became Head of Digital and part of the ebooks leadership team. Brett also led the Federal Government’s Books Alive campaign.

Judging Opportunities 

If you are interested in being considered as a judge in the future, please complete our Expression of Interest form and include the following:

• Contact details
• Statement of suitability as a literary judge (no more than 3,000 characters)
• Curriculum vitae (no more than 1 page)
• Reference(s)
• Recent Photo for promotional purposes if appointed

Submit a Judge EOI

The Woollahra Digital Literary Award is open to all Australian Residents aged 16 years and over, who have published work online in the first instance in last two years.

Submitted works must be available online as: .epub, .mobi/azw, .ibooks or .pdf file from a known e-book vendor or platform (such as iBookstore, Google Play, Amazon, Bookworld, Kobo, Baker & Taylor or Overdrive), or as a multimedia piece, story, article, essay or poetry available on a blog, online magazine, journal or website that has an editorial selection process.

Please note: Entrants must provide a URL to the web location where digital work can be accessed as proof of publication. It is the responsibility of each entrant to provide a working URL. Only works that were published in a digital format in the first instance will be accepted for judging.

Check the conditions of entry and frequently asked questions.

We are currently accepting contributions and partnership proposals for the 2025 Woollahra Digital Literary Award. For information on levels of support and reciprocal benefits, please review our Award Sponsorship Package(PDF, 10MB) . 

Woollahra Libraries operates under the Council’s Donations and Sponsorship Policy(PDF, 673KB).