Merkel wins 2024 Hope Prize

John Merkel has won the 2024 Hope Prize, presented by Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S), for the story ‘Shadows Cast by the Moon’.

Merkel won the inaugural award, worth $10,000, with the second-place prize of $2000 going to Jacqueline Warner for ‘Creating Ripples’ and two third-place prizes, each worth $1000, going to Carol Byrne for ‘The Black Hole’ and Will Cordner for ‘Tram Lines’.

Announcing the winners, S&S said the placing pieces were ‘chosen through a three-round de-identified judging process’ and thanked judges Quentin Bryce, Tony Birch, Julia Gillard, Mark Rubbo and Dan Ruffino for their ‘meticulous efforts in selecting the placing stories’.

Established last year, the inaugural Hope Prize sought ‘stories of hope, courage, and resilience’ and was open to fiction and nonfiction submissions between 2000 and 5000 words.

Simon & Schuster will publish an anthology of the winning and highly commended submissions later this year, with all royalties to be donated to mental health charity Beyond Blue.

Category: Awards Local news