Melbourne Prize announces new categories

The Melbourne Prize Trust has announced two new award categories in the triennial Melbourne Prize for Literature.

In addition to the $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Literature, which was won by Alison Lester in 2018 and is supported in 2021 by major partner the Vera Moore Foundation, this year’s program now includes the $20,000 Professional Development Award, supported by the Melbourne Prize Trust, and the $15,000 Writers Prize, supported by the Robert Salzer Foundation.

The new categories replace the $30,000 Best Writing Award and the $5000 Readings Residency Award, last presented in 2018 to Maria Tumarkin and Jamie Marina Lau respectively.

Finalists in the Melbourne Prize for Literature and Professional Development Award will receive $1000 each, courtesy of Federation Square, while the winner of the Civic Choice Award, supported by Readings and Hardie Grant, receives $3000. This year’s judges are writers Alice Pung and Declan Fry, and Sydney Writers Festival artistic director Michael Williams.

Entries for all three prizes are open now and will close on 19 July. Voting for the Civic Choice Award will open when finalists are announced on 15 September, and will close on 10 November, when the category winners are announced. For the first time the prize’s finalist exhibition will be virtual, hosted on the Melbourne Prize website.

This is the sixth time the Melbourne Prize for Literature will be presented, with the prize alternating between urban sculpture, music and literature in a three-year cycle. To learn more visit the Melbourne Prize website.

Category: Awards Local news