Judges – 2024 Young Writers Award

In 2024, the Young Writers Award judges named Ash Shirvington this year's winner, and Sara Allan-Park, AJ Pope, and Quinn Stennett runners-up.

Congratulations to these writers.

The judging process

State Library staff will check entries for eligibility.
Entries are provided to the judging panel. The panel will deliberate remotely.
This competition is judged anonymously.
Judges will award first prize to the short story that possesses the highest literary merit.
The judges may award one winner and up to three runners up, in order of merit. The panel may also note up to five highly commended entries.
Results will be published on the State Library website and social media channels.

The judging panel

Entries to the Young Writers Award are assessed by an independent panel of judges, including a representative from the publishing partner Kill Your Darlings.

Siang Lu (Chair)

Siang Lu is the author of Ghost Cities and the multi-award-winning The Whitewash, which won Audiobook of the Year at the 2023 ABIAs and the Glendower Award for an emerging writer at the Queensland Literary Awards. In 2023 Siang was named one of the Top 40 Under 40 Asian-Australians at the Asian-Australian Leadership Awards.

Image of Siang Lu who is wearing a black suit with a white shirt. He is smiling.

Julie Koh

Julie Koh is the author of two short-story collections: Capital Misfits and Portable Curiosities. She was a 2017 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist. Her short stories have been published widely, including in the Best Australian Stories and Best Australian Comedy Writing. She has written two radio plays for ABC Radio National and the libretto for the opera Chop Chef. She has also judged several literary awards including the 2018 Stella Prize and the 2022 and 2023 Steele Rudd Award. Julie is the current Fiction Editor for Westerly.

Alan Vaarwerk (KYD representative)

Alan Vaarwerk is an editor, writer and critic. He was editor at Kill Your Darlings magazine from 2017 to 2023 and is currently a news producer at Guardian Australia. He studied writing and editing in Queensland and now lives in Melbourne.

Photo of Alan Vaarwerk who wears glasses and a checkered shirt. He sits in a garden.

Ellen Vickerman

Ellen Vickerman is an emerging writer based in Meanjin Brisbane. She studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Creative and Professional Writing) and a Master of Philosophy in creative practice at QUT. Ellen has been published in the Griffith Review, and has previously won the Newcastle Short Story Award, QUT's Allen & Unwin Writers Prize, and the Sydney Writers Room Short Story Prize, among others.

Ellen won the Young Writers Award in 2021, and 2020. You can read her winning stories here.