Hachette Australia Prize for Young Writers Shortlist 2025
We are thrilled to announce the shortlisted writers for this year's Hachette Australia Prize for Young Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry categories!
Express Media has been proud to present this prize yet again in 2025, in partnership with Hachette Australia, to showcase excellence in creative writing amongst secondary school aged students around the country.
This unique developmental award will offer the shortlisted entrants an exclusive Q&A session with prize ambassador and author Ashleigh Barton, as well as a writing masterclass and book packs courtesy of Hachette Australia. The winner of each category - to be announced on the Express Media YouTube on December 15th - will receive a $500 cash prize, their names published in the next Voiceworks issue and publication of their work on the Express Media website.
This year, the prize received 330 entries. The shortlisted winners are:
Fiction
‘The 5 Steps To Being Human’ by Sarah Dizon (NSW)
‘persephone.’ by Abigail Koh (WA)
‘The Market of Memories’ by Syeda-Fajar Asif (VIC)
‘Shining Tor’ by Emily Bennett (NSW)
‘Blood Oranges’ by Rozana Eshghighadiri (NSW)
Nonfiction
‘Daring Defiance or Cowardly Compliance?’ by Cecilia Xu (VIC)
‘A Tolerance for the Middle’ by Georgina Lewis (NSW)
‘The Pen is Mightier than the Sword.’ by Jennifer Lee (NSW)
‘The Days I Forgot the Sky Was Blue’ by Amogh Madhan (NSW)
‘The World We Inherit’ by Sharika Zaman (NSW)
Poetry
‘Corrosive properties’ by Harriet Wallis (VIC)
‘OTHER’ by Selina Decarlo (NSW)
‘The Kingdom of Small Things’ by Jiayi Fang (NSW)
‘The Killer’s Agent Asks for a Final Favour’ by Angela Yang (NSW)
‘The Bush that will not grow’ by Aseni Gnanadasa (VIC)
This shortlist was selected by our judgement readers: Adela Teubner, Nadia Harari, Eve Tramacchi O’Keefe and Isabel Greenslade.