Celebrating past winners of the Young Writers Award

State Library has been running the Young Writers Award since 1998, making it one of the longest-running short story prizes in Queensland. In that time we've recognised the talents of more than 120 Queenslanders and rewarded them with prizes and publication opportunities.

We're proud of all entrants who send us their stories – it takes effort to write and bravery to press submit! But did you know some of the most beloved authors working in Australia today started out with success in the Young Writers Award? Among the many superstars in its 25-year history are Tara June Winch, Benjamin Law, Shastra Deo, Lech Blaine and Gavin Yuan Gao.

These terrific writers are novelists, poets, essayists, short story writers, and creative producers winning awards and working hard at their craft. (One has even found themselves in that most introverted of writers' nightmares – a gig on Survivor). 

Tara June Winch – Runner up, 2003, for her story 'Swallow the air'

Tara June Winch is a Wiradjuri author of three books of fiction. When she was 22 years old, Tara won the David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer. Swallow the air was published by University of Queensland Press in 2006 and went on to win a slew of awards. Tara's second book was the short story collection After the carnage (UQP, 2016).

Tara won the 2020 Miles Franklin Award for her masterpiece about family love, language and place, The Yield, which was also shortlisted for the 2020 Stella Prize.

Want to know more? Tara spoke with Sian Cain in this touching interview, in France, where Tara now lives. Or read this great essay about Swallow the air by Melissa Lucashenko.

Benjamin Law – Runner up, 2006, for his story 'Simon Says' 

A graduate of Queensland University of Technology, Benjamin's tender and very funny memoir, The Family Law (Black Inc.), came out in 2010. Later, he would help turn it into a television series. Benjamin's next book was Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East in 2012. 

Benjamin is co-creator and executive producer of the extremely fun Wellmania (2023), which is based on a book of the same name by Brigid Delaney. 

And most recently Benjamin was found sunburnt, muscled, and bandanna-ed on Australian Survivor. 

Shastra Deo – Runner up, 2012, for her story 'The minutes turn to ours'

After the Young Writers Award Shastra turned to poetry. She won Queensland Poetry's prestigious award, the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, in 2016. That unpublished poetry manuscript became The Agonist for which Shastra won the 2018 ASAL Awards – ALS Gold Medal (an actual gold medal you can wear around your neck!) 

Her follow-up poetry collection is The exclusion zone, published in early 2023, soon after Shastra completed her PhD at University of Queensland.

Dr Deo is simply one of the most captivating poets to witness; you can watch her read her poem 'Learning' here or listen to her poem 'Shivling' here. 

Lech Blaine – Highly commended, 2015, for his story 'Happy hours'

Toowoomba-born writer Lech writes thoughtful, witty, and rigorous non-fiction. He was shortlisted for multiple awards for his brilliant Car Crash: A Memoir (Black Inc. 2021). Lech has just been named 2023 Judy Harris Writer in Residence at the Charles Perkins Centre in Sydney. One of the country's most interesting and valuable fellowships for a single writer, Lech will use the fellowship to write his next book of non-fiction in the company of scientists and researchers. 

At the 2017 Queensland Literary Awards, Lech won a Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Award, and maintains strong ties to the state now that he lives in Sydney. 

Gavin Yuan Gao – Highly commended, 2018, for their story 'Last Hope'

Another writer with the capacity to write beautifully across genres is Gavin Yuan Gao. They won the 2020 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize for At the Altar of Touch, later published by UQP. It won the prestigious Victorian Premier's Literary Awards – Prize for Poetry.

Read one of Gavin's poems 'Argument of Incorporeality' online at Cordite Poetry or watch them read from At the Altar of Touch here.

Results of the 2023 award are coming soon!

And who knows which short fiction gems the judges are uncovering right now as part of the 2023 Young Writers Award! Stay tuned for the results of this year's award, which will be announced here in July.