Australia

Writing competitions in Australia come with their own map of prizes, and the ones gathered here are the names Australian writers mention first. Some reward a finished novel, some a single short story, and one exists for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers. The country's scale shapes them: a small publishing world, long distances, and judges who read for a sense of place.

Three names carry the Australian contests here, and each one opens a different door. The Miles Franklin Award is the country's best known fiction prize, the one a novelist points to when the book is about Australia itself, its places and its arguments. The Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize works at the shorter length, for the writer who has a single strong story rather than a manuscript. The Daisy Utemorrah Award reaches Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers, so the work it recognises comes from voices the other two prizes rarely touch. Set beside contests from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, these three share a habit: they expect the writing to be located, to know where it stands. A story that could happen anywhere interests them less than one that could only happen here.