National short story competition The Hope Prize returns

The Hope Prize from the Brotherhood of St Laurence is a national short story competition that focuses on narratives of disadvantage in Australia. It’s open to Australian residents and has a total prize pool of $17,500.

From the Brotherhood of St Laurence website:

Australia is the proverbial ‘lucky country’, yet amid our remarkable prosperity too many pockets of poverty and disadvantage persist in our cities, regions and remote areas. This narrative deserves to be explored through evocative writing.

The Hope Prize encourages writers to explore people's resilience in the face of poverty and disadvantage, to look beyond all too common stereotypes to depict the strengths that people and communities show in dealing with hardship.

The judging panel consists of actor Cate Blanchett, former Australian governor general Quentin Bryce, and author Kate Grenville. What a stellar line up!

Last year’s winner was Catherine Moffat with her story ‘Better Homes and Gardens’. Judge Kate Grenville had this to say about Moffat’s story: “The hope here isn’t that good things are going to happen, because they probably won’t. It’s that love is stronger than circumstance, and hope keeps love alive.”

Are you interested in entering?

Submissions need to be between 2000 and 5000 words and entries close 31 January 2018.

To find out more and to enter, visit the Brotherhood of St Laurence’s website.

If you’re interested in short story writing competitions, you can check out our list of short story competitions to enter in 2017.