View the 2024 Shortlist & Longlist

Open Short Story Competition 2025

Everyone can write at least one good story. That was the belief of J. F. Archibald, the editor and founder of the famous nineteenth-century weekly, The Bulletin, who invited his readers to become contributors. It was this encouragement that led Joseph Furphy, working in his brother’s foundry at Shepparton, to write his ‘offensively Australian’ novel, Such is Life, using the pseudonym of ‘Tom Collins’. The book, full of stories derived from Joseph’s experience in the Riverina and told in a voice uniquely his own, is now acknowledged to be a classic of Australian literature

In the spirit of Archibald and honouring the author of Such is Life, the Furphy Literary Award has been established to promote and extend the tradition of story telling, both factual and fictional, that is so much part of Australian life.

There will be an annual award for a prose work, which may be fiction or narrative non-fiction, by a writer aged 18 years or more at the date of closing of entries.

To enquire about the Furphy Literary Award email fla@furphystory.com.au

  • Theme: Australian Life in all its diversity
  • Length: Not more than 5,000 words
  • Reward: Prize Money: 1st Prize – $15,000, 2nd Prize – $3,000, 3rd Prize – $2,000
    LaTrobe University Shepparton Residency*, Publication of selected works in annual publication
  • Competition commences: Saturday February 1, 2025
  • Closing date for entries: Wednesday 11.59PM April 30, 2025

*Details of residency to be finalised after completion of awards event.

Conditions of entry
Register and submit

Only open after 1st of Feb 2025

Entries for the Furphy Literary Award are managed by a software product called Submittable. Please follow the link which will prompt you to:

  1. Create a free account with Submittable.
  2. Enter and save submission details
  3. Upload your work and submit
Please Note*

Stories are listed in no particular order.

The Furphy Literary Award 2025 Open Short Story – Shortlist

  • The undying love of Specimen A398

    Author: Emma Westwood

  • Tendency to Sunburn

    Author: Mark O’Flynn

  • The Eulogy Business

    Author: Calliope Vale

  • All The Moments I Still Live In

    Author: Amy Montague

  • Halcyon Days

    Author: Kym Tyzack

  • Waiting

    Author: Tina Huang

  • Muggy Mouth

    Author: Jorgia Hamilton

  • Falling

    Author: AS Patric

  • Turkey Dinner

    Author: Darren Bell

  • The Cailleach/Fire

    Author: Philomena van Rijswjik

  • Those Who Stayed

    Author: Melanie Wild

  • The Role of Cloaca in Montotreme Phylogeny

    Author: Joseph Pfeffer

  • Turn to Snow

    Author: Jay McKenzie

  • Somewhere Above the Artesian

    Author: Charlotte Askew

  • Familia Defectus

    Author: Louise Walton

  • The Grim Gripper

    Author: Damian O’Donnell

The Furphy Literary Award 2025 Open Short Story – Longlist

  • Falling – AS Patric
  • Collectables – Alex Grantham
  • Still Standing – Alison Davis
  • One thing you should know about me is… – Alison Killick
  • Whole Again – Alison Richards
  • Cur-Aus-ity – Alyssa Walker
  • All The Moments I Still Line In – Amy Montague
  • Glyph – Ashley Cracknell
  • Lotto – Benjamin Power
  • Face to Face with Fishers Ghost! – Brian Chapple
  • Parting – Bruce Clark
  • The Eulogy Business – Calliope Vale
  • Match – Carlie Jennings
  • Crossroads: Three’s a Crowd – Carmel Liddell
  • Nathan: On Closing the Gap – Carmel Liddell
  • Burnt Horizon – Caroline Dehn
  • Somewhere Above the Artesian – Charlotte Askew
  • Thick-knee – Charlotte Spurge
  • Clap Hands ’til Daddy Comes Home – Chris Thompson
  • Proliferate – Christine Caley
  • Felt – Claire Aman
  • The fifth day at Flaggy – Corrine McMaster
  • The Grim Reaper – Damian O’Donnell
  • Hills Hoist – Dani Ringrose
  • Turkey Dinner – Darren Bell
  • Joe and the potato frames – Darren Pettett
  • Waiting for Father – David Harris
  • The Boy on the Train – Deborah Hunter
  • Head of Cook – Debra Adelaide
  • Happy Hour at the Broken Hill Hotel – Elizabeth Kuiper
  • With all of her Teeth – Emily Tsokos Purtill
  • The undying love of Specimen A398 – Emma Westwood
  • Monty – Erin Cate
  • No Place Like Home – Evelyn Fox
  • One of Our Own – Jake Kite
  • Like a Stone – Janeen Samuel
  • Turn to Snow – Jay McKenzie
  • Weimin – Jing Cramb
  • Dionysus Escapes – Joann Djubal
  • The dog of the south – John Fraser
  • Hole in the Earth/Cakes – John Potts
  • Muggy Mouth – Jorgia Hamilton
  • The Role of Cloaca in Montotreme Phylogeny – Joseph Pfeffer
  • Night Riders – Joshua Kemp
  • Beanpole – Joshua Lee Shimmen
  • Our Spy – June Hopkins
  • Sunrise with Sea Monsters – KA Rees
  • Echoes of Grace – Kathie Elliott-Scott
  • Hunting Tigers – Keith Goh Johnson
  • Silently Vanished – Kylie Orr
  • Halcyon Days – Kym Tyzack
  • Pursuit – Lee Frank
  • Familia Defectus – Louise Walton
  • Rest – Lyn Treadwell
  • Tendency to Sunburn – Mark O’Flynn
  • the best sandwiches of your life – Mars Landing (Morris Bryant)
  • Those Who Stayed – Melanie Wild
  • Night Music on Repeat – Meryl McDougall
  • A New Life – Michael Fletcher
  • The Shadow of the Man Still Follows – Michael Kowalczyk-Barker
  • Club by Day, Kitchen by Night – Miles Da Costa
  • A Different Kind of Dawn: Refections of ANZAC DAY 2025 – Naomi Taylor
  • A Man’s Best Friend – Oisin Kan
  • I am… – Patsy Norton
  • Sydney Harbour – Paul Drewitt
  • Space Invaders – Paul Drewitt
  • Some Kind of Samaritan – Paul Mitchell
  • The Fallacy of Self – Penni Giuliani
  • The Cailleach – Philomena van Rijswjik
  • Shark Nets – Robin Barker
  • Grit in my eyes – Rodney (Rod) Francisco
  • On Three Full Moons – Ron Schroer
  • Sacrifice – Rowan MacDonald
  • Silent Is The Night – Roxeena Bidgood
  • Used Parts – Russell Bywater
  • Whispers from Shiraz – Sepideh Fallah
  • Slugs – Shane Platt
  • The Mirror Stage – Sharon Kernot
  • The Little Blue Boat – Stephen Orr
  • Naming Rights – Stuart Campbell
  • The Rolling Pin Competition – Sue Osborne
  • Less – Susan Bennett
  • Waiting – Tina Huang
  • Gore Hill Cemetery – Verity Borthwick

Can you tell us a story?

Meet the Judges

Anson Cameron

Anson Cameron is the award winning author of seven novels, two collections of short stories, a childhood memoir, and a biography of Neil Balme.

He has also penned something like half-a-thousand columns for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald while still waiting for his editor’s reply to the question, “Okay, but if I agree to write a column, what do you want me to write about?”

His sad observation of the reading public is that many of them aren’t smart enough to see what they’re being accused of – otherwise he’d have offended everyone by now.

Stephanie Holt

Stephanie Holt is an award-winning writer, editor and educator. A former Meanjin editor and head of Operations at Overland, she is now a freelance editor and Chair of the Board of the institute of Professional Editors.

John Harms

John Harms is a writer, historian, and publisher. His books include Confessions of a Thirteenth Man, Memoirs of a Mug Punter, Loose Men Everywhere, Life as I Know It, and numerous editions of The Footy Almanac annual. He lives in the Barossa Valley.

 

Margaret Hickey

Margaret Hickey is a playwright and an award-winning, best-selling author from rural Victoria. Her short stories have been published in Meanjin, Island magazine, Westerly and The Big Issue and have won and been shortlisted for many prizes. Her plays have been performed all over Australia and read in New York. Her novel Cutters End was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Debut Crime award and won the DANGER award. Her next novel Stone Town was shortlisted for the Davitt Award for Female Crime Writers and Broken Bay was released in June 2023. Margaret’s new novel, The Creeper will be launched July 30 2024.

John Kerr

John Kerr is an independent writer and publisher with a background in corporate educational and general book publishing. His publishing list includes the best-selling autobiography of eye doctor Fred Hollows and Fraser Island environmentalist John Sinclair, written with Peter Corris. He wrote The Big Folbigg Mistake in 2023 and The Wieambilla Shootings in 2024.

Thornton McCamish

Thornton McCamish is a journalist and author, and a former editor of The Big Issue magazine. His biography of Alan Moorehead, Our Man Elsewhere, won the NSW Premier’s Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction and was shortlisted for the 2017 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. His biography of the Australian art critic Robert Hughes is due to be published next year

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The Furphy Anthology 2024!

This hardcover anthology includes 16 of the best short stories selected from the 2024 Furphy Literary Award.

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