Best Australian Blogs Competition 2014 Finalists announced

The Australian Writers’ Centre today announced 31 finalists in the annual Best Australian Blogs Competition. These finalists now compete for the title of “Best Australian blogger” for 2014.

The finalists were selected from a record 1,125 blogs entered in this year’s competition. They are in the running to win a trip to Turkey including flights, accommodation and most meals and activities courtesy of competition sponsor Trafalgar.

This will be a seven-night guided holiday comprising return economy flights, centrally-located accommodation, most meals, an array of exclusive Insider Experiences, in-destination transfers and ground transportation, services of a Trafalgar Travel Director and insider moments from Local Experts.

The winner will also receive writing courses from the Australian Writers’ Centre, as well as books and a $1000 cash prize from leading publishing company Random House Australia.

Five finalists were announced in for five of the categories: competition categories: Lifestyle (405 entries), Personal/Parenting (278 entries), Food (94 entries), Commentary (103 entries) and Words/Writing (165 entries). Six finalists were announced for the business category (84 entries).

You can view all finalists here.

The judging panel includes political and economics commentator Greg Jericho; Random House managing editor Brandon Van Over; author and journalist Allison Tait; features writer and editor Alecia Hancock; veteran food writer and editor Carli Ratcliff; and small business commentator Robert Gerrish.

The People’s Choice round will close Monday May 5 at 5pm. Over 1000 blogs entered this round, and over 13,600 votes have already been cast.

2013 winner, Sneh Roy (www.cookrepublic.com), has spent the last year working with Random House Australia. It will publish her cookery book, Tasty Express, in this year.

Random House is also publishing a book by 2013 category winner, Clint Greagan (www.reservoirdad.com), to be released July 2014.

The competition differs from many Australian blog competitions as bloggers are selected based on quality of writing as assessed by an expert panel, rather than through blogger-generated votes alone. It is the fourth year of the competition.

Winners will be announced 7 May 2014. So stay tuned!

Best wishes and congratulations to all finalists. And thank you to everyone who entered!
You can view the finalists here.