The Woollahra Digital Literary Award (2017-)
Subcategory of Awards Australian Awards
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

History

Inaugurated in 2017, the Woollahra Digital Literary Award offers a prize for Fiction published digitally in the first instance, and a prize for Non Fiction published digitally in the first instance. It is orchestrated by the Woollahra Library.

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2023

Indexed selectively. Winner for non-fiction: Cher Tan's 'House Style Lifestyle, Or: Same. Same. Same. Same. Same. Same'. Also shortlisted for non-fiction: Jon Tjhia's '_____________ complete ____ replacement' and Alexander Wells' 'Australia Searches for National Identity in the Trenches of WWI'. Also shortlisted for poetry: Magdalena Ball's 'Soil Horizon (o)'. (TK: undated). Also shortlisted for Digital Innovation: Holly Isemonger's concrete poem 'Pleasure of the Text', Jenny Hedley's 'Titleist Pro V1', Jordan Roux's 'Hello Informant'.
winner (Fiction) Life of a Folk Devil Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2023 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2023; Meanjin , Autumn vol. 82 no. 1 2023; (p. 10)
winner (Poetry) Security Questions (True Vulnerability) i "Is this the light refracting innocently through a droplet of rain I’m seeing", Dominic Symes , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 108 2023;
winner (Digital Innovation) y separately published work icon Yurlu the Kingfisher Man Noel Wilton , Cliff Coulthard , Toongabbie : SharingStories Foundation , 2022 27116067 2022 single work prose Indigenous story
winner (People's Choice Award) The Myth of Good Posture Yael Grunseit , 2022 single work short story
— Appears in: Voiceworks , January no. 125 2022; (p. 77-79)

Year: 2022

Nonfiction category indexed selectively. Also shortlisted: Felicity Plunkett on Sylvia Plath and May Ngo on Jospeh Ponthus. Poetry indexed selectively. Poetry winner: Caroline Reid's 'A Poem to My Mother that She Will Never Read' (published on Mslexia: no date). Also shortlisted: Saba Vasefi's 'The Portable Home' (published on Red Room Poetry: no date).
winner (Fiction) The Golden Bracelet Deniz Agraz , 2020 single work short story
— Appears in: Meniscus , vol. 8 no. 2 2020; (p. 103-110)
winner (Digital Innovation) Stand Up Rae White , 2022 single work poetry
— Appears in: Backslash Lit , Winter no. 6 2022;
winner (Reader's choice) By Signalling Nothing I Remain Opaque Cher Tan , 2021 2021 single work prose
— Appears in: Disorganising 2020-;

Year: 2021

winner (Fiction) y separately published work icon Zorba The Buddha Katerina Cosgrove , Strawberry Hills : Spineless Wonders , 2020 20457228 2020 single work novella 'The year is 1986, Guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has been exiled from the United States after the highly scandalous failure of his Oregon ashram, Rajneeshpuram. Told from four different perspectives and through various time jumps, Zorba the Buddha documents how this movement fell apart from the inside out. Each character’s experience sheds light on the attractive qualities of the movement’s Master, as well as their individual struggles to follow his commands and align their faith with his teachings. A truly compelling read, Katerina Cosgrove’s novella and reflective essay give insight into the true events that began in Oregon and ended in Crete' (Publication summary)
 
winner (Poetry) We're Processing Your Direct Debit i "That's you in bokeh, hands leaking over a rail.", Dan Hogan , 2003 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Red Room Company 2003;
winner (Digital Innovation) y separately published work icon The Collapse David Henley , Australia : David Henley , 2020 23395810 2020 single work short story science fiction

'A vision of the future drawing on the terrors of our present: pandemics, food shortages, climate change and cyber war — is the only solution to retreat into hibernation? But what will be waiting for you to wake up?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Year: 2020

winner (Fiction) Mez Breeze for 'Perpetual Nomads' (FLEFF: Networked Disruptions Online Exhibition)
winner (Fiction) The Final Boys Peter Polites , 2018 single work short story
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 77 no. 1 2018; (p. 76-81)
winner (Non-fiction) A History of Reading : Alan Marshall and Helen Keller Amanda Tink , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , May 2019; Second City : Essays from Western Sydney 2021;

'On 9 May 1933, the day before the Nazis burned her book as part of their action against books of ‘un-German spirit’, Helen Keller wrote an open letter to them, which was published on the front page of the New York Times. ’You can burn my books and the books of the best minds in Europe,’ she said, ‘but the ideas in them have seeped through a million channels and will continue to quicken other minds.’ Today, if Helen Keller is thought of at all, it’s as the blind and deaf girl who, through the efforts of her teacher, learned to communicate. There’s scant acknowledgement that she was even capable of having ideas, and she’s often reduced to nothing more than testament to the ideas of others. However, Keller not only spoke, but read and wrote four languages, and was a prolific poet and essayist. The ideas that led to the Nazis burning her book Out of the Dark were contained in the essay ‘Why I Became a Socialist’.' (Introduction)

winner (Poetry) Omar Sakr for 'Where I Am Not' (on Poem-a-Day, Academy of American Poets).

Year: 2019

winner (Fiction) Rachel Ang For 'Toot Toot' (online only, Going Down Swinging).
winner (Non-fiction) The Hot Desk : Working Hot by Mary Fallon Fiona Kelly McGregor , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , February 2019;

'You have to remember things were different back then. In 1989, when Working Hot was published, homosexual acts in NSW had been decriminalised for only five years; in Tasmania they would remain illegal for another eighteen. Teachers, public servants, most particularly employees of the Catholic Church, were often sacked if their homosexuality was disclosed. The films In the Realm of the Senses and John Waters’ uncut Pink Flamingos were banned.' (Introduction)

winner (Poetry) Jason Nelson for 'Nine Billion Branches'.
X