Rockingham Writers Centre National Short Story Award Entry Guidelines
- For a short story with ‘A Twist in the Tale’
- For writers across Australia
- $500 first prize
- $100 second prize
- Competition closes at 11.59pm July 1, 2026
- The prize is open to all writers in Australia aged over 18. Entries must be the author’s original short fiction of not more than 2000 words with ‘A Twist in the Tale’.
- Entries must be unpublished on line or in print and not have won any other award. Entrants should not submit stories that are generated in part or in full by AI. Any AI use for creative or editing purposes should be attributed, with details of how it was used. Any entries that are suspected to be AI generated will be disqualified, at the discretion of the judge/s.
- Stories must be formatted in Arial or Times Roman 12-point font, double spaced, with the story title and page number on each page of the document. The author’s name must not appear on the document.
- Entries close at 11.59pm, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. Late entries will not be accepted.
- An entry fee of $15 for Rockingham Writers Centre members/$20 for non-members. Entries are not valid until the entry fee is paid.
- The story should be uploaded as a Word document (not PDF) to the Rockingham Writers Centre website. The entry form is linked below.
Please use the title of your entry as the name of your Word document, not your name. The website includes an online form for submitting your details, including your name, bio, postal and email addresses, title of your entry, and instructions for paying the entry fee. If you have difficulties with this, please contact rockinghamwriterscentre@gmail.com for support. - Authors may enter separate individual works, provided that the required entry fee is paid for each entry. Please use a new entry form for each additional entry.
- The winner will be announced at a presentation ceremony for the writing awards in Rockingham, Western Australia on September 30* and the winning entry will be published on the website, along with the judge’s report. Authors retain copyright of their work.
* Winners who live interstate or in regional WA will need to pay their own travel/accommodation costs if they wish to attend the presentation ceremony.
NB: Members of Rockingham Writers Centre Committee and their families are ineligible to enter.