Announcing the theme for Living Stories 2023 …
We are so pleased to announce the theme for next year’s writing prize.
Over the line … ?
Living Stories 2024 – The Competition
The Living Stories Western Sydney Writing Prize is a creative writing competition for residents of Western Sydney, Wingecarribee and Wollondilly Shire, which is home to over 2.5 million Australians originating from 180 countries, speaking almost 100 different languages, and residing in 14 local government areas.
Living Stories is your opportunity to share your story. If you are aged 10 years or older, we want your piece of writing responding to the theme Over the line … ?
Your poem, story or personal essay (500 words maximum for prose, 25 lines maximum for poetry) will be judged by panels drawn from your local community. The winners from each LGA will go to a second panel to vie for the top prize.
Categories are as follows: 10 – 12 years; 13 – 15 years; 16 – 18 years; and adults (18+).
In conjunction with the prize WestWords will run free writing workshops across Western Sydney and online.
Competition Dates
Competition Opens: 22 March
Free Writing Workshops will run during the April school holidays
Competition closes: 6 May
Announcement of LGA winners: Early June
Announcement of Overall winners and book launch: end of July school holidays
2024 – The Workshops
Free Writing Workshops will run during the April school holidays. Information on the workshops will be linked here from March, 2024. Please see the list of our partner libraries for Living Stories.
Blacktown
Blue Mountains
Camden
Campbelltown
Cumberland
Canterbury Bankstown
Hawkesbury
Liverpool
Parramatta
Penrith
The Hills
Wingecarribee
Wollondilly
History of Living Stories
The Living Stories Western Sydney Writing Prize is a creative writing competition for residents of Western Sydney, Wingecarribee and Wollondilly Shire, which is home to over 2.5 million Australians originating from 180 countries, speaking almost 100 different languages, and residing in 14 local government areas.
The competition began in 2021 with assistance from NSW Government as part of its support to the Arts sector recovering from the first year of the COVID pandemic and presented in conjunction with WestLit Libraries, an association of library services from across the region. The competition was the first of its kind for Western Sydney. We were also grateful for support from Australian Catholic University who were the category sponsor for the 16-18 year old category.
The thematic prompt for the competition was in 2021 was Are We Here Yet? To assist the writers we offered in excess of 40 free workshops in libraries across Western Sydney and online. There are winner and highly commended entries awarded in each age category in each participating LGA. The winners then go onto a second round of judging to determine over all winners and highly commended stories and poems. All the 67 regional winners and highly commended work get published in an anthology. In 2021 the book was to be launched at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre by our patrons Her Excellency The Honourable Margaret Beazley AO QC, Governor of NSW and Mr Dennis Wilson but that was the first day of the extended lockdown that characterised life in Western Sydney in the second half of that year. Instead the launch was held virtually in a lovely ceremony when such things were relatively novel.
In 2022, with no dedicated COVID recovery funds from Government we felt that a grassroots writing competition to provide a platform and visibility for the voices in Western Sydney was important. This year the prompt was things unsaid. In 2022 we welcomed Booktopia as the category sponsor for the 10-12 year old category joining Australian Catholic University. In 2023 we were excited that James Kirby Foundation partnered with us. A competition of this size is not an insignificant undertaking and we sincerely thank all our partners, library staff, writers and contributors for their contributions.
We see the competition contributes to the central mission of WestWords to provide pathways and opportunities for the stories of Western Sydney to be celebrated and heard. Click on the icons below for more information, to read and enjoy the work emanating from this richly diverse part of Australia.
Past Winners and Competitions
Previous Digital Workshops – view online
Bryan Brown Reading from Living Stories: The Other City
We are grateful to WestWords ambassador, Bryan Brown, for taking the time to share his reading of one of the overall winning pieces in the 'Living Stories: The Other City' anthology.
WestWords Living Stories Online Creative Writing Workshop for Adults
Michelle Hamadache, Director of Creative Writing at Macquarie University, will help you out with ideas, techniques and inspiration to assist you in getting a poem or short story written in time to submit into the Living Stories competition.
WestWords Living Stories Online Creative Writing Workshop for 16-18yr olds
Adam Byatt takes young writers through some tips and tools of the trade in this online writing workshop, aimed at 16 to 18 year olds.
WestWords Living Stories Online Creative Writing Workshop for 13-15yr olds
Join Kim Pham as she runs 13 to 15yr olds through a hands-on Living Stories Online Creative Writing Workshop to help them develop a short story or poem on the theme of 'the other city' in real time.
WestWords Living Stories Online Creative Writing Workshop for 10-12yr olds
In a Living Stories Online Creative Writing Workshop, Liz Ledden helps 10 to 12yr olds brainstorm place, characters and plot, as well as utilise mindmaps to assist in the creation of a story or poem.
Living Stories Western Sydney Writing Prize 2021 – announcement of winners and book launch
"The WestWords/WestLit "Living Stories" Western Sydney Writing Prize took place over all thirteen local government areas in Western Sydney, with one winner and one highly commended entry for each of the four age categories -- 10-12yrs, 13-15yrs, 16-18yrs, and 18+....
Writing Workshop with Rawah Arja, 13-15 yrs
Writing Workshop with Scot Gardner, 16-18 yrs
Poetry Workshop with Harry Laing, 10-16 yrs
Writing Workshop with Luke Johnson, 18+ yrs
