UWA Publishing and the Copyright Agency is excited to announce that the winner of the 2025 Dorothy Hewett Award is Mohammed Massoud Morsi for his unpublished fiction manuscript The Hair of the Pigeon.
Morsi will receive a publishing contract and manuscript development with UWA Publishing and $10,000 prize money courtesy of the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund. The Hair of the Pigeon will be published by UWA Publishing in the first half of 2026.
The judging panel for the 2025 Award was Tony Hughes-d’Aeth, Caitlin Maling, James Jiang and Kate Pickard. The judges were heartened by the number of submissions to the Dorothy Hewett Award, well over 300 – across all categories: fiction, narrative non-fiction, and poetry. The judges of the award commented the following about the winning fiction manuscript: “In the tangled streets of millennial Damascus, Ghassan and Sama are childhood friends. As they grow into adulthood in the convulsions of the Arab Spring, violence erupts intimately into their lives. The fatality of these days, between regimes and in the shadow of violent expulsions, plays out with the precision of a primal scene. This gripping novel speaks powerfully to the moment we are in.”
In his acceptance speech, Morsi says: “Thank you for recognising my work. As a journalist who has spent time listening to people from all walks of life, I am grateful that not only mine, but their stories get a chance to be told. In Australia we have the privilege of peace and a chance to consider lives different from our own. And now, with current events around the world, I think this is a wake-up call for all of us to understand the stories of those of us who yearn for justice. My wish is this book is received in the manner in which it is given. I have always been drawn to the stories that bind us and give us the sense of belonging to each other; that which we dream of but struggle speaking about. This book, this story, began almost 20 years ago. I never imagined that this was the way it would come to life.” Watch the full announcement here: https://youtu.be/gEBoYP3ZQJI
In 2024, the judges announced Western Australian writer Kaya Ortiz as the winner of the award for their manuscript Past & Parallel Lives which was published in March 2025 by UWA Publishing. The inaugural winner of the award was Josephine Wilson for her manuscript Extinctions which went on to win the 2017 Miles Franklin Literary Award. The Dorothy Hewett Award is open annually to Australian writers of fiction, narrative non-fiction, or poetry and the winner receives $10,000 courtesy of the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund and a publishing contract with UWA Publishing. The award will reopen for submissions on 1 November 2025. Find out more about the award and how to submit via the UWA Publishing website.
The Copyright Agency is a not-for-profit rights management organisation that ensures artists, writers and publishers are fairly rewarded for the reproduction of their work. Their Cultural Fund provides grants to creative individuals and organisations for a diverse range of projects which aim to enrich Australian cultural life. Thanks to the Copyright Agency’s support the Dorothy Hewett Award is now in its 10th year and has provided prize money to 11 winners so far. Find out more about the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund here.
UWA Publishing sends a warm thank you to the Copyright Agency for its ongoing support for the Dorothy Hewett Award and congratulates Mohammed Massoud Morsi on his achievement.
Mohammed Massoud Morsi is an Egyptian-Danish-Australian photographer, journalist and writer. His work has been published in all three of his traditional languages. Morsi discovered journalism made people yesterday’s news and turned to writing novels instead. He has a talent for reaching to the heart of existence in a complex world and looks to important questions, finding that which is quintessentially human within much broader struggles. His work is enriched by his photographer’s eye for detail and a passion for speaking out for those suppressed, challenging and breaking common narratives all at once.
Watch the announcement here.
Find out more about the award here.
