Conditions of Entry

This award recognises and celebrates the best new contemporary literature in Australia, highlighting innovative and forward-looking writers and publishers.

Eligibility

  1. The Woollahra Digital Literary Award invites submissions of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, as well as multimedia and hybrid works first published in a digital format for consideration for the 2025 Awards.
  2. These are the formats required for entry: an .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 a live URL from a blog, online magazine, journal or website with an editorial selection process.
  3. If you have submitted work to an online journal, website or a digital platform run by an individual or group who makes careful and considered decisions about what work is published, your entry will be eligible for judging. This is a prize for professional writers that recognises the high quality of writing published digitally.
  4. Shortlisted applications are strongly encouraged to provide permission for entered work to be made available in Woollahra Libraries E-Content Management Platform, used for the hosting, circulation and digital rights management of e-content to Authorised Library Users.
  5. Poetry submissions are capped at 3,000 words. Fiction and Non-Fiction submissions are capped at 30,000 words with a minimum of 2,000 words required. Submissions to the Digital Innovation category are capped at 30,000 words. Longer works will be considered if a sample of 1-2 chapters can be provided for judging.
  6. Longer works will be considered for judging, but the work in it’s entirety may not be read by judges during the initial judging period, unless work is deemed of a high literary standard and is in the running for longlisting for the Award.
  7. If the work entered has been published to an online journal or website, applicants must include contact details for an editor or publisher with their submission. Editors of shortlisted works may be contacted for verification.
  8. Entries accepted for selection must be the original work of the submitting author, must not have been submitted for entry to the Woollahra Digital Literary Award before, and must have been published in a digital format in the first instance or simultaneously with a print publication after the date 30 May 2023.
  9. Entries must be written in English (or be an original translation into English).
  10. Entries accepted for selection must be submitted by authors that are over 16 years of age and are current Australian Residents.
  11. All entries must be submitted electronically, via a live URL or in PDF format.
  12. The decision of the judges is final.
  13. Entries will be judged to select, in the opinion of the judges, the best entry in the following four categories:
    • Fiction ($2,500)
    • Non Fiction ($2,500)
    • Poetry ($1,000)
    • Digital Innovation ($1,500)
  14. Entrants may submit work to multiple categories, but only one entry can be submitted by each entrant in the Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry and Digital Innovation categories. A separate entry form must be completed for each entry. If a winning entry has been submitted by multiple authors, the prize money awarded is awarded per entry (not per author).
  15. Winners for the 2025 Woollahra Digital Literary Award will be announced at an award presentation at Woollahra Libraries - Double Bay, Sydney NSW on Tuesday 25 November 2025.
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