About the prize

The Fair Australia Prize is actually four $5000 prizes: one for fiction (up to 3000 words), one for essays (up to 3000 words), one for poetry (up to 88 lines) and one for graphics or cartoons (180 mm wide by 255 mm high).

The prize encourages artists and writers of fiction, poetry and essays to be part of setting a new agenda for Australia. Winning entries will be published in a special Fair Australia supplement in Overland 220, to be launched in Melbourne in August. Entry is free.

Competition closes midnight, 1 April 2015.

The kinds of questions entries should engage with

• How does insecure, casual, precarious work affect a person and their community?
• What do you think a fair Australia looks like?
• How can we change Australia together?

About the NUW

The prize is supported and funded by the National Union of Workers, a large union that is made up of workers in a diverse number of industries including warehousing, cold storage, poultry, pharmaceutical, dairy and market research. Increasingly, NUW members are dealing with insecure and precarious work.

The NUW stands for jobs that all workers can count on, whether permanent, casual, contract or labour hire. NUW workers and community members collaborate and organise to build a fair Australia inside and outside the workplace.

The NUW believes that a union must be part of a broad social movement to create democratic change, equality and sustainable jobs.

How the prize will be judged

In each category, submissions will be read blind by a panel of judges. Winners will be selected on the basis of their aesthetic excellence, and their engagement with the issues and themes above and in this background material.

Entrants are encouraged to respond creatively and imaginatively – the competition seeks to foster innovative thinking and expression rather than dogma or didacticism.

Entry conditions:

• This is a prize for original pieces, written in English
• Submissions must be unpublished (including online) and not under consideration by other publishers
• Submissions that have won or are under consideration in other competitions are not eligible
• Submissions will be processed electronically. Stories and essays should be formatted at 1.5-line spacing and a minimum of 12-point font size. Images must be jpgs or tifs
• The competition will be judged anonymously. The author’s name must not appear on the manuscript or the entry will be disqualified
• Multiple entries are acceptable, although each must be entered into the submission system separately
• The winning entries will be published by Overland
• Entrants must respond to the guidelines, background and materials provided
• The closing date is midnight 1 April, 2015. Late entries will not be accepted
• The judges’ decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into
• The prize for each category will be $5000
• The judges reserve the right not to arrive at a winner in any category

Ready to enter?

Short story (up to 3000 words)

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Click here to submit your entry.

Not yet an Overland subscriber?
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(Remember, you can support Overland by becoming a subscriber.)

 

Essay (up to 3000 words)

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Not yet an Overland subscriber?
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(Remember, you can support Overland by becoming a subscriber.)
 

Poetry (up to 88 lines)

Current Overland subscriber?
Click to submit your entry.

Not yet an Overland subscriber?
Click to submit your entry.
(Remember, you can support Overland by becoming a subscriber.)

 

Graphics & cartoons (180 mm wide x 255 mm high; colour)

Current Overland subscriber?
Click to submit your entry.

Not yet an Overland subscriber?
Click to submit your entry.
(Remember, you can support Overland by becoming a subscriber.)