The annual $500 Booranga Prizes are awarded to two works – the best poem and best short story submitted each year.
The prize-winning poem and short story are also published in our annual anthology, fourW, along with new writing from writers both local and international. Prize winners are announced at the launch of the anthology in November and included on our website after the event.
Submissions are accepted on a continual basis, however entries for the Booranga Prizes close on 30 June for publication the following November. Applications received after this date will be considered for the following edition. A free copy of the published anthology will be provided to all writers whose work appears in the anthology.
Due to the large volume of work we receive, we cannot provide feedback to individual authors.
2005: fourW sixteen – Inaugural Booranga Prize
Poetry: Keri Glastonbury – anti-suburb
Prose: David Orchard – Midnight Snow
2006: fourW seventeen
Poetry: Alison Eastley (2 poems) – Dead To The World My Body Was Sleeping
If you want to know the difference
Prose: Daniel King (2 stories) – Nothing Contemplates Nothing
Driving Wheel
2007: fourW eighteen
Poetry: Jill Jones – The Beautiful Anxiety
Prose: Daniel King – Heaven and/or Hell
2008: fourW nineteen
Poetry: Alicia Sometimes – This Machine Kills Fascists
Prose: Alicia Sometimes – Artist. 2008
2009: fourW twenty
Poetry Winner: Nicole Zdeb – Casual Hills Surround Me
Prose Winner: Kate Rotherham – HM
2010: fourW twenty-one
Poetry Winner: Brett Dionysius – Flight
Prose Winner: Kirk Marshall – Bear vs Plane
2011: fourW twenty-two
Poetry Winner: Jane Joritz-Nakagawa – from Blank City
Prose Winner: A.S. Patric – Guns ‘N Coffee
2012: fourW twenty-three
Poetry Winner: Michael Farrell – The Structuralist Cowboy
Prose Winner: Beverley Lello – Especially to Women
2013: fourW twenty-four
Poetry Winner: B.R. Dionysius – Mundgatta (Bunyip)
Prose Winner: Broede Carmody – Wet Season
2014: fourW twenty-five
Poetry Winner: Mark O’Flynn – Six Lipograms
Prose Winner: Beverley Lello – Writers’ Retreat
2015: fourW twenty-six
Poetry Winner: Derek Motion – Density
Prose Winner: Maryanne Khan – An Inconvenience
2016: fourW twenty-seven
Poetry Winner: Julie Maclean – 41 North 50 West
Prose Winner: Beverley Lello – Sounds Like rain
2017: fourW twenty-eight
Poetry Winner: Daniel King – King Henry X
Prose Winner: Mitchell Grabois – Stinky Cheese
2018: fourW twenty-nine
Poetry Winner: Andy Kissane – Sacrifice
Prose Winner: Dorothy Simmons – Opposable Thumbs
2019: fourW thirty
Poetry Winner: Hugh Crago – Equal Rights for Gay Whales
Prose Winner: Rachel Mead – The Bouncer and the Blot Clot
2020: fourW thirty-one
Poetry Winner: Tug Dumbly – Fake Billy Collins Poem
Prose Winner : Jane Downing – Buena Vista
2021: fourW thirty-two
Poetry Winner: Damon O’Brien – How to Hold a Knife
Prose Winner: Rachel Mead – The Bow at Full Draw
2022: fourW thirty-three
Poetry Winner: Lachlan Brown – Underline for Effect
Prose Winner: Jane Downing – Marx’s Pennies
2023: fourW thirty-four
Poetry Winner: Linda Albertson – Some Woman
Prose Winner: Christopher Scriven – So much depends