THE DOROTHY HEWETT AWARD FOR AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT

The Award is currently closed for entries. The shortlist for the 2023 Dorothy Hewett Award will be announced in 2023. 

Dorothy Hewett (1923-2002) is considered one of Australia’s most important writers whose work challenged the norms of twentieth century Australian culture. As a writer, Hewett made her mark as a poet, playwright, novelist, short-story writer memoirist and staunch activist, Hewett’s life and work gave voice to the marginalised. In 1986, Hewett was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her services to literature. Hewett won the Western Australian Premier’s Poetry Award in 1994 and 1995 for her collections Peninsula and Collected Poems: 1940-1995.

The Dorothy Hewett Award is open to all writers who have completed a manuscript and are seeking publication. The work must be fiction, narrative nonfiction or poetry, inclusive of hybrid genres such as verse novels or memoir. The winner will receive a cash prize of $10,000, courtesy of Copyright Agency, and will be offered a publishing contract by UWA Publishing. The winner of the 2022 Dorothy Hewett Award was Brendan Ritchie for his manuscript 'Eta Draconis.' The 2021 joint Award winners were Kgshak Akec for her novel, Hopeless Kingdom, and Josh Kemp for his novel, Banjawarn (submitted as Strangest Places). The inaugural winner, Extinctions by Josephine Wilson, went on to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

Terms and conditions can be viewed here. Please direct any queries to marketing-uwap@uwa.edu.au.