HarperCollins launches unpublished manuscript prize

HarperCollins has launched The Banjo Prize, an annual unpublished manuscript prize for Australian commercial fiction.

The winner of the prize will receive a publishing contract with HarperCollins and an advance of A$15,000. Two runners-up will receive a written assessment of their manuscript from HarperCollins.

The prize is named after Australia’s first bestselling author Banjo Paterson, whose first collection of poems The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses was published by Angus & Robertson in October 1895. The Angus & Robertson publishing imprint was merged into HarperCollins in 1989.

HarperCollins Australia CEO James Kellow said, ‘HarperCollins has a long history of uncovering great new Australian voices and we hope that The Banjo will help us uncover more literary gold. We’re looking for stories that make us laugh and cry, stories that keep us reading late into the night, stories that make our pulse race and stories we can’t put down.’

Entries open on 23 March and close 25 May. A shortlist will be announced on 26 July and winners will be announced on 13 August.

More information on the prize is available here.

Category: Local news