The Newcastle Short Story Award is a project of the Hunter Writers’ Centre Inc. By entering the Newcastle Short Story Award, you agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions:

Submission Deadline

1. The closing date for submissions is Sunday 12 July 2026, 8:00 PM (AEST).

Prizes

2. All prizes are cash except voucher awards where indicated.

First prize = $3,000

Second prize = $1,500

Third prize = $500

Members Prize = $500, available to members of the Hunter Writers’ Centre

Highly Commended = $250

Who can submit?

3. Entrants must be aged 18 years or over.

4. Submissions are open to Australian citizens or permanent residents of Australia residing anywhere in the world.

5. The 2026 Newcastle Short Story Award judges, Hunter Writers’ Centre staff, volunteers, Board members and their immediate families are ineligible to enter.

6. Entrants must provide their own name on the entry form for administrative purposes. If an Entrant prefers to be published under a pseudonym, they must note both their pseudonym and real name on the entry form.

7. Entrants do not have to be a Hunter Writers’ Centre member to enter.

Submission fees and charges

8. Submission fees are $22.00 ($20 + GST) per story submitted for Hunter Writers’ Centre Members and $27.50 ($25 + GST) per story submitted for non-members.

9. All entries must be accompanied by payment of the relevant submission fee at the time of entry. Payment is accepted by credit or debit card via Stripe.

10. Submission fees are non-refundable if a submission is withdrawn from the Newcastle Short Story Award.

11. A 1.7% card processing fee is applied to all transactions and will be calculated at the end of the submission form. This fee is charged at cost and is non-refundable.

How to submit

12. Submission is online only and must be submitted via the Hunter Writers’ Centre’s Newcastle Short Story Award.

13. There is no limit on the number of stories that can be entered.

14. One story = One entry = One entry fee.

15. The entry form contains a maximum of ten (10) entries.

16. Submissions entered into previous Newcastle Short Story Award competitions and not selected in the short-list, anthology, or for prizes may be re-entered.

17. Each submission will receive a Confirmation of Entry email. If you have not received a confirmation email, please check:

• The entry fee has been deducted from your bank account, and

• If the Confirmation of Entry email is in your spam or junk folder. 

• If you still have not received your Confirmation of Entry email, please contact us on contact (@) hunterwriterscentre.org

Submission Formats

18. We accept Word document (.doc, .docx).  

19. Text should be presented in a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, 12pt font, 1.5 spacing.

20. Title of piece to be included at beginning of document. Pages should be numbered.

21. The word limit is 2000 maximum. Titles and subtitles are included in the word count. There is no minimum word count.

22. Judging is conducted blind. Entries that include the author’s name either within the written work, or in the entry’s filename are ineligible.

23. Do not include personal dedication in entries.

24. Poetry and plays are not eligible for entry in the Newcastle Short Story Award

Submission Conditions

25. Entries must be original works of fiction, written by the entrant.

26. Entries may be subject to an academic integrity check.

27. Eligible entries using or referring to Aboriginal content must be in accordance with the Indigenous Peoples’ rights to their heritage (ICIP) guidelines and to the Aboriginal protocols of the region where they have been produced. If a piece includes the lived experience of minority persons or communities, we may contact the entrant to clarify this out of respect for cultural safety.

28. Entrants must acknowledge any quotes or text from other sources used within entered stories.

Use of AI Tools

29. The Newcastle Short Story Award values the authenticity of lived experience and human creativity. Submissions must be the original work of the entrant.

30. Submissions must be the original work of the entrant and not generated wholly or substantially by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. While standard digital aids (e.g. spell-checkers or grammar correctors) may be used, generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT, Sudowrite, or similar) must not be used to compose or significantly alter the creative content.

31. Entrants must disclose any AI assistance used during the writing process. Submissions that are substantially generated by AI, or where AI use is not disclosed, may be deemed ineligible.

Warranties

32. By entering the Newcastle Short Story Award, the entrant warrants that:

• • they have all necessary rights to submit their entry and the material submitted has not been previously published or licensed for publication in any form;
  • their manuscript is their original creation;
  • to the best of their knowledge, their manuscript is not defamatory;
  • their manuscript does not infringe any existing copyright or license or any other third-party rights.

33. Hunter Writers’ Centre reserves the right, at any time, to verify the validity of entries and entrants (including the entrant’s identity, age and place of residence) and to disqualify any entrant who tampers with the entry process. Failure by the Hunter Writers’ Centre to enforce any of its rights at any stage does not constitute a waiver of those rights.

Exclusivity

34. Entries must not be published in any form (print or electronic) or currently offered for publication.

35. During the judging period, stories may be entered into other competitions. If a story is short-listed for the Newcastle Short Story Award, the author will be given a 24-hour period to decide whether they want to withdraw their story from the Newcastle Short Story Award or from the other competition/s. Exclusivity is essential for the Newcastle Short Story Award short-listed stories.

36. If, during the judging period, a story is published or longlisted in another competition, the author must immediately notify the Hunter Writers’ Centre and withdraw their entry from the Newcastle Short Story Award or withdraw from the other competition.

Judging

37. Judging is conducted blind. All entries are provided for judging without reference to the author.

38. The judges’ decisions are final. No correspondence will be entered into with either the judges, the staff or the Board of the Hunter Writers’ Centre. 

39. We unable to provide feedback on individual entries.

40. The judges, in their absolute discretion, may disqualify any entrant or entries if they reasonably suspect any unlawful or improper conduct, such as infringing a third party’s intellectual property rights, or if there has been a breach of these terms and conditions. 

Media and Communications

41. Prize winners may be required to participate in media-related events associated with the competition.

Publication

42. By entering the Newcastle Short Story Award, the entrant gives permission to Hunter Writers’ Centre to publish their work in the anthology if selected by the judges. The copyright to the work is retained by the author

43. A $75 publication fee will be paid to the author for each non-award winning piece selected to be published in the Newcastle Short Story Award anthology.

44. As publisher of the anthology, Hunter Writers’ Centre has First Publication Rights to all submitted works and may use any title or phrase from any entry for the purpose of promoting the competition and the anthology.

45. Any collection or publication after the Newcastle Short Story Award that includes the author’s story should acknowledge this competition.

46. Copyright in the shortlisted stories resides with the author. The short-listed author grants the Hunter Writers’ Centre an exclusive license to publish the story in relevant Hunter Writers’ Centre print and online publications for three months after the date of first publication, and thereafter a non-exclusive license indefinitely to publish the stories whole or in-part online or in print.

47. All entrants selected to be entered into the anthology will be posted one (1) copy of the print anthology. Entrants residing overseas will be asked to contribute to postage costs.

Notifications

48. Authors whose stories have been selected to be published in the Newcastle Short Story Award anthology will be notified in September 2026.

49. Authors selected to be published will be contacted directly. We do not contact entrants who are not successful.

50. Shortlisted stories and authors will be announced on the Hunter Writers’ Centre’s website and social media channels in September 2026.

51. The Newcastle Short Story Award Winners will be announced in November 2026.

52. Newcastle Short Story Award published anthology will be available in November 2026.

Indemnity

53. To the full extent permitted by the law, Hunter Writers’ Centre will not be liable for any delay, death, injury, damages, expenses, or loss whatsoever (whether direct or consequential) to persons or property as a result of any person entering into the competition or accepting or using any prize, including without limitation non-receipt of any prize or damage to any prize in transit and the Prize winner’s failure to comply with the terms and conditions (if any) specified by any third party.

54. The entrant agrees to indemnify Hunter Writers’ Centre against any loss or damage resulting from any breach of the terms and conditions above and acknowledge that Hunter Writers’ Centre may, in its absolute discretion, not award any prize to entrants for breach of the warranties above.