WestWords: A Western Sydney Anthology

To celebrate 10 years of WestWords, we are announcing the call out and publication of WestWords: A Western Sydney Anthology.

Terms & Conditions

The call for work to the WestWords: A Western Sydney Anthology anthology is open to writers above the age of 18 as of 4 April, 2025.

Short stories must be a between min. 1,000 and max. 2,500 words. Poetry is a max. 25 lines.

This call out accepts poetry, fictional prose, and non-fiction prose of any genre.

Work must be aimed at an adult readership.

The manuscript must be written primarily in English and an entirely original work, written by the entrant.

The work cannot be previously published in any form, including self-publishing or on the writers’ website/blog.

The submitted work cannot be under consideration to any other publisher or entered in any award.

The work must be submitted as either a PDF or Word document.

Entrants must be citizens or full-time residents of Australia.

All entries must be submitted via email to competitions@westwords.com.au by Midnight, 30 June, 2025.

In their submission email, all entrants must attach a max. 1 page that includes a) writer’s bio and b) a brief explanation of their connection to Western Sydney or WestWords.

Entries will be judged on the work’s literary merit, selected by the publication team at WestWords Books.

The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into either during or after the judging process.

The successful entries will be notified by email by mid-July, 2025.

The successful entries will be published in the WestWords: A Western Sydney Anthology to be launched in December, 2025.

Each writer whose work appears in the anthology will receive one free copy of the publication.

All writers must have a connection to WestWords or Western Sydney. For the purposes of this call out, we define this connection as any one of the following:

have been born and raised in Greater Western Sydney (or)
have lived in Greater Western Sydney for more than 2 years (or)
have worked in the region for a substantial length of time and within the past 5 years (or)
Have been involved in one of WestWords’ main programs: The WestWords Academy, The WestWords Fellowship, The WestWords Accelerator, The WestWords-Varuna Residency, The WestWords Daffodil Residency, Illuminated Ink, Voice Renewed, Our Stories, Poet’s Corner, Shortlisted for the Blake Poetry Prize, (or)
Have been published in one of our previous anthologies such as: BAD Western Sydney, BAD Western Sydney: The Second Case, Bridges, Silence Transformed, A Book of Love & Loss, Transforming Silence, Lights On, Apples: An unapologetic anthology from the core, Living Stories, Fisher’s Ghost, Blacktown Mayoral, (or)
Have been a tutor/workshop presenter, or otherwise employed by us.

In submitting your work you agree to the following terms:

You accept the conditions of entry and give your consent for your manuscript to be considered for inclusion in the anthology.
You agree that prior to publication, you will make yourself available for correspondence and editing of your work.
You grant WestWords, as the publisher of the anthology, the first serial rights on any story we publish.
You grant WestWords first print (exclusive rights), and the right to keep the submitted story in print as part of the anthology. *
After expiry of first print rights, you grant WestWords continuing, non-exclusive print rights as part of, and in reprints of, the anthology only.
You understand that proceeds of the anthology will be used to offset costs involved in producing this, and future, WestWords anthologies.
You will make yourself reasonably available for associated publicity and events.

* the author retains all rights not expressly granted to the publisher.

In submitting your work you warrant that:

Publication of your manuscript by WestWords will in no way whatsoever infringe on any existing copyright or licence or any other right of any third person.

By entering a submission, the entrant hereby declares that no Generative AI tools (large language models) were used in the creation or editing of their submission.

The work contains no defamatory matter, or any matter which invades any individual’s right of privacy.

All statements in the work purporting to be facts are true.