In 2025, we invited writers and storytellers nationwide to participate in the Grieve Project and expanded the scope of storytelling genres to include prose, poetry, and a variety of multimedia formats such as film, audio, graphic storytelling, and visual imagery.
This expansion enriched the storytelling landscape of the Grieve Project and the conversation about grief and loss in our community.
Below are the submissions in mediums other than prose and poetry that were prize winners or longlisted in the 2025 competition. For prose and poetry winners, scroll down.
Mixed Media Award-Winners
Mixed Media
‘David’s Eulogy’
Video
Artist: Lily Anna
‘Heirlooms’
Video
Artist: Megan Riedl
‘Dark Oxygen’
Video
Artist: Tayla Richardson
‘Where to find me’
Video
Artist: Alaxandrea O’Brien
Grieve - Volume 12
The accompanying 2025 Grieve Anthology captures the diverse voices and experiences of grief and loss. The anthology presents the longlisted works from the 2025 competition and is available from the Hunter Writers’ Centre website.
2025 Grieve Project Poetry and Prose Winners
| Award | Title | Artist | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Association of Loss and Grief (NSW) Award | The grief triptych | Ellen Shelley | Poetry |
| National Association of Loss and Grief (NSW) Award | Two weeks to grieve my beloved | Maggie Wairimu Hari | Poetry |
| your choice funerals Award | O' Child | Kristy Sibanda | Poetry |
| your choice funerals Award | 'til I grow too old to dream | Sassie Gardiner | Image |
| Pettigrew Family Funerals Award | Magenta | Rowena Lennox | Poetry |
| All About Grief Award | Nothing | Emma Brazil | Poetry |
| Chris Morley Award for Creative Use of Non-standard Terminology | Perhaps never | Liza Dezfouli | Prose |
| Grieving the Living Award | Portrait | Richenda Rudman | Poetry |
| Newcastle Memorial Park Award | don't know where you are- don't know where i am | Maggie Kelly | Artwork |
| Lake Macquarie Memorial Park Award | Birthday | Lucy Norton | Prose |
| Palliative Care NSW - Curators' Award | Powder blue sky | Oormila V. Prahlad | Poetry |
| Palliative Care NSW - Curators' Award | Mourning Behaviour in Dolphins | Tiffany Hastie | Prose |
| Hunter Writers' Centre Member Award | I’d have begged the earth to bury me but for your flowers | Indianna Gregg | Image |
| Hunter Writers' Centre Director's Choice | Eating my own kittens | Rachael Guy | Poetry |
| Everymind|Mindframe Award | The grief no one sees | Janelle Standish | Poetry |
| In Memoriam Award: Robert Miller | Ordinary things I want to tell her | Coral Carter | Poetry |
| In Memoriam Award: Bryn Griffths | The language of water | Paul Hetherington | Poetry |
| In Memorium Award: Honouring the long-term impacts of trauma | Olive tree at Beit Hanoun | Anne Benjamin | Poetry |
| In Memoriam Award: Marilyn Ferguson | Spear thistle | Dimitra Harvey | Poetry |
| In Memoriam Award: Leigh Abbott | It happens | Natalie Grealish | Prose |
| In Memoriam Award: Tom Adams | In Mao's Country | Becca Wang | Prose |
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