The WestWords Prize is a new publishing Prize that welcomes submissions from writers of fiction and narrative non-fiction who have a completed, previously unpublished manuscript, and who have a connection to Western Sydney.

The winner of the Prize will receive a publication deal with WestWords’ Books, WestWords’ adult trade imprint.

Announcing the WestWords Prize Shortlist

WestWords are proud to announce the Shortlist for the inaugural WestWords Prize.

With the Shortlist, WestWords recognises manuscripts that demonstrate a strong voice, are achieving something bold and different, as well as being close to publication ready.

The winner of the Prize will receive a publication deal with WestWords’ Books, WestWords’ adult trade imprint.

Keep an eye on our socials for the announcement of the winner.

The WestWords Prize is a new publishing Prize that was open to completed, previously unpublished manuscripts, that were works of either fiction or narrative non-fiction, and where the author has a connection to Western Sydney.

Thank you to all the writers who submitted to the Prize. We were impressed by the number of entries and the high-calibre writing the competition received.

Congratulations again to the WestWords Prize Shortlist.

Anith Mukherjee – Apocalypse

About the manuscript:
In 2013, Riz is a stand-up comedian in Sydney. He’s talented, motivated, and obsessed with fame. When Riz meets Fleur at a house party, the intense attraction between them sets off a vortex of bad decisions, doom, dread, and chaotic love. Fleur is in an open relationship with Josh, who is seven years older and has everything Riz doesn’t. Social confidence, sexual experience, normalcy. Lost in navigating his love for Fleur, his jealousy and competition with Josh, and his continual drug abuse, Riz loses his opportunity to win a prestigious national stand-up comedy competition. When the girl Riz loves runs away to Europe with another, a betrayed Riz goes on a bender at a club, triggering an intense emotional
breakdown.
 

About the author: 

Anith Mukherjee is a writer and filmmaker based on unceded Gadigal land. He won the 2020 Deborah Cass Prize for his story ‘I Am Full Of Love.’ His writing is candid, tragicomic, and defiant, exploring themes such as mental health, identity, and alienation. He often draws from his own experiences as a South Asian Australian and an artist. His prose is polished, visceral, and full of allusions. He has been published by Western Sydney University’s ‘The Writing Zone’ program and Kill Your Darlings’ ‘New Australian Fiction’ anthology.
 

Barbara Ivusci – Heveyn Farm

About the manuscript:
Helena is a twenty-three-year-old woman working a dead-end job in a fruit shop and living with her oppressive mother in the suburbs of Western Sydney. She’s had her fair share of challenges as a child, from having to flee her home country at the onset of the Yugoslavian war in the early 90s, to being diagnosed with a mood disorder. When she meets Evelyn, a woman ten years her senior, with two children and a farm they’re squatting in Sydney’s west, Helena can’t help but fall for Evelyn’s eccentric ways. When Helena’s mother dies suddenly from a stroke, she’s left with no choice but to accept Evelyn’s offer to come and live with her on the farm. Co-dependence sits at the core of their relationship and a reliance on a land that is supposed to nourish, not punish, its occupants.

About the author: 
Barbara Ivusic is an Australian editor and emerging author. She studied English Literature at University of Sydney and has a certificate in Professional Editing and Publishing from University of Technology Sydney where she also studied Creative Writing. Her publication recognitions include The Bridport Short Story Prize, Literary Colloquium Berlin, “The Midwife” Island Print Magazine Issue 167, “Hevelyn Farm” longlisted for the Varuna Writer’s House Residency, Literary Stipend from the Berlin Senate: Department for Culture and Europe, “Crème Kingdom” Resilience Anthology by Mascara Literary Review and Ultimo Press, “Matinee” Stadtsprachen Magazine Online Issue 21 and the Beyond Queer Words Print Anthology, 4th Edition. “Evelyn’s Dolls” Cheat River Review, “Pedigree Dolls & Toys” Glitter, Print Magazine, and “Thirst” – Tears in the Fence, International Print Magazine, Issue 72.

Barbara Ivusci – Heveyn Farm

 

About the manuscript:

Helena is a twenty-three-year-old woman working a dead-end job in a fruit shop and living with her oppressive mother in the suburbs of Western Sydney. She’s had her fair share of challenges as a child, from having to flee her home country at the onset of the Yugoslavian war in the early 90s, to being diagnosed with a mood disorder. When she meets Evelyn, a woman ten years her senior, with two children and a farm they’re squatting in Sydney’s west, Helena can’t help but fall for Evelyn’s eccentric ways. When Helena’s mother dies suddenly from a stroke, she’s left with no choice but to accept Evelyn’s offer to come and live with her on the farm. Co-dependence sits at the core of their relationship and a reliance on a land that is supposed to nourish, not punish, its occupants.

 

About the author: 

Barbara Ivusic is an Australian editor and emerging author. She studied English Literature at University of Sydney and has a certificate in Professional Editing and Publishing from University of Technology Sydney where she also studied Creative Writing. Her publication recognitions include The Bridport Short Story Prize, Literary Colloquium Berlin, “The Midwife” Island Print Magazine Issue 167, “Hevelyn Farm” longlisted for the Varuna Writer’s House Residency, Literary Stipend from the Berlin Senate: Department for Culture and Europe, “Crème Kingdom” Resilience Anthology by Mascara Literary Review and Ultimo Press, “Matinee” Stadtsprachen Magazine Online Issue 21 and the Beyond Queer Words Print Anthology, 4th Edition. “Evelyn’s Dolls” Cheat River Review, “Pedigree Dolls & Toys” Glitter, Print Magazine, and “Thirst” – Tears in the Fence, International Print Magazine, Issue 72.

 

Patrick Forrest – What I am to you to them

About the manuscript:
Riley Forst is an openly gay, young Filipino artist; Adam Straker is a closeted White-Australian lawyer. The two have shared an intimate and enduring relationship since growing up together in Doonside, Western Sydney, one that has always been based on the assumption that they can change one another. Adam’s parents offer to help him with a deposit towards purchasing his first apartment in Sydney’s coveted Inner-West, a home he intends to share with Riley who has no hope of owning a home of his own. Riley, however, has issued an ultimatum; he won’t accept a cent unless Adam agrees to tell his parents the truth of their relationship.

 

About the author: 
I’m Patrick Forrest, 30. I’m a Queer Filipino Australian writer and artist living and working on Drug country in Western Sydney. While I write across multiple genres, I have found over the years that I always return to the theme of Queer Love, which is the heart of my novel What I Am To You To Them. For this title, I was lucky enough to be awarded the 2018 WestWords Varuna Residency, and then in 2021, be shortlisted for the Penguin Literary Award. I am also an animator working in the documentary space. I was awarded the Young Walkley Award for Visual Storytelling in 2020, and the 2022 Walkley Mid-year Celebration of Journalism award for a short animated documentary called Surviving a Lovescam. What I Am To You To Them is my first novel.

Philip Barker – Burning Good Samaritans


About the manuscript:
In the shadowed streets of Lawson near Sydney, Marcus stumbles through the night with a broken, bloody hand and a heavy heart, carrying his entire world in a single backpack. Desperate to escape his abusive mother, he seeks refuge with his estranged father, only to discover that his father has long since left. Marcus’s hope for forgiveness is shattered as his mother violently assaults him once more. Seeking solace, Marcus hides in a nearby Cathedral, where he is comforted by Father Bailey, a kindly priest who invites him to participate in the mass. But Marcus’s pain and anger are too deep; he drinks heavily from the communion wine, and in a fit of drunken rage, shatters a window and flees. When confronted by a homeless man, Marcus lashes out violently, nearly killing him, only to be saved from the consequences by Father Bailey and Mr. Hartman, who provide him with new clothes and a cover story.

About the author: 

Philip Barker grew up in Seven Hills and is now a High School Special Needs Teacher in Cambridge Park (Western Sydney). Burning Good Samaritans is his first step into the world of traditional publishing. He lives in the Blue Mountains with his wife and newborn son. In the past, he has self-published two novels, Climb and Climb Harder, which were received very positively by critics and follow the trials and tribulations of a young girl who learns to rock climb. These novels explore the complexities of the family unit and growing up in a divided Australian society.

Amy Anshaw-Nye – The Maydown Girls


About the manuscript:
Rhiannon Ross is living in a flat she can’t afford and working as a phone-sex operator. Scarred by an abusive childhood and her father’s recent suicide, she uses humour to cope. She has a fraught relationship with her mother, Maggie, and her sister, Sharona. When Maggie gets engaged to a foxy Tom Selleck look-alike, Sharona purchases their childhood home, which stands on five acres of bushland in Maydown, Western Sydney. The town is infamous for the violent deaths of the teenage “Maydown girls”, Tanya Baxter and Elizabeth Eldridge. Over a decade later, their killer remains free. Rhiannon is evicted from her flat and forced to move home, where she struggles with sobriety. However, strange things keep happening at home. Something is tapping from inside her parents’ locked safe. A lump on her head grows bigger until she discovers a bullet encased inside the wound. Her father’s ghost bruises her with his rotting hands. After a dream about Tanya Baxter, Rhiannon suspects her father may have killed the Maydown girls.


About the author: 

Amy Anshaw-Nye (she/her) is a queer writer, zinester and essayist living and working on unceded Darug land in Western Sydney. Her works explore themes of love, transformation, madness, motherhood, and queer identity. She is a WestWords Academy alum and was a recipient of the 2023 WestWords-Varuna Emerging Writers’ Residency. She has served as a judge for the Dymocks Beyond Words Writing Competition, Fisher’s Ghost Writing Prize, and The Living Stories Writing Prize. She enjoys facilitating workshops for emerging writers. She’s also founder of a zine press, where she publishes zines about life, pop culture, and queer love. Amy’s writing can be read in a variety of publications including BAD Western Sydney, ZineWest, ACON, and Verandah Journal. You can find Amy on Instagram @amyanshawnye.

 

May Ngo – The River


About the manuscript:

When thirty-year old SOKSAN UNG reluctantly returns to Australia from London to help her parents recover from losing their family home to an investment scam, she finds herself in Parramatta, a city in the midst of urban development and gentrification. Shortly after Soksan begins her new job at Parramatta Council, the strangled body of her boss, EVANGELINE KELLY, is found in Parramatta river. After accidentally finding some crucial evidence linking her boss to bribery involving the construction company Newman Constructions and the controversial BelleVue Estate luxury apartments, Soksan is drawn into the murder investigation especially after she discovers it is the same company that had been involved in her parents’ investment scam.

 

About the author: 

I am a writer, editor and former academic with a PhD in anthropology. I am Australian of Teo Chew Chinese-Cambodian descent. My essays have been published in Kill Your Darlings, Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin, The Lifted Brow and diaCRITICS. My fiction has been published in Mascara Literary Review and Pleiades magazine. I have also written an erotic thriller audio drama for the podcast platform Podimo and am currently writing an audio drama for BBC radio 3. I received the Kill Your Darlings New Critic Award 2021 and the Sydney Review of Books 2021 Juncture Fellowship. I was shortlisted for the Woollahra Digital Literary Awards in 2022, and was highly commended for the Wheeler Centre’s The Next Chapter award for my crime fiction manuscript THE RIVER. I was also accepted onto the mentoring program Asian Women Writers for this manuscript, and the WestWords Academy in 2022. To read more of my work, please visit: mayngo.net

 

Dates …

  • The WestWords Prize opened August 26th, 2024
  • The WestWords Prize closeed October 8th, 2024
  • The Winner of the Prize will be announced December, 2024

Connection to Western Sydney …

For the purposes of this Prize, we define a connection to Western Sydney as one of these three: 

  • have been born and raised in Greater Western Sydney
  • have lived in Greater Western Sydney for more than 2 years
  • have worked in the region for a substantial length of time and within the past 5 years

The manuscript …

  • must be completed, and not previously published (including self-published)
  • can be any genre of fiction or narrative non-fiction, intended for an adult readership
  • must be between 60k and 90k words
  • must not be entered into any other prizes, or under consideration at any other publisher
  • must be submitted in 12pt font, Times New Roman, double spaces, with default margins 

FAQ & Terms and Conditions

Click here to read the full terms and conditions of entry.

I am a published author, can I still enter?

Yes, the Prize welcomes submissions from authors who have previously published both traditionally and self-published. It is the manuscript that must be completed and previously unpublished. 

My manuscript is for a YA and adult audience, can I enter? 

We recommend manuscripts be intended for an adult readership. 

My manuscript is over 90k, can I still enter? 

Manuscripts must be between the 60k-90k range (with minor allowance either side). Manuscripts over 90.9k will not be read. 

I have a poetry collection, or a short story collection, may I enter?

No, this is a call for novel-length works of fiction and narrative non-fiction prose. 

Which LGAs are considered “Western Sydney”?

Western Sydney is defined as these LGAs:

  • Blacktown City
  • Blue Mountains City
  • Camden Council
  • Campbelltown City
  • Cumberland Council
  • Fairfield City
  • The City of Canterbury-Bankstown
  • Hawkesbury City
  • Liverpool City
  • The City of Parramatta
  • Penrith City
  • The Hills Shire
  • Wollondilly Shire

I am not sure about my connection to Western Sydney, should I still enter? 

If you are unsure if you meet the requirements of entry, or have any questions at all, please email admin@westwords.com.au 

 

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