The Dorothy Hewett Award was established in 2015 by UWA Publishing. The aim of the Dorothy Hewett Award is to support literary talent and to celebrate the life and writing of an Australian radical writer. The award is an annual fixture designed to be a catalyst for writers beginning or furthering their professional writing careers. The award is funded by The Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund, and supported by our media partner is The Saturday Paper. 

The Dorothy Hewett Award is open to all writers who have completed a manuscript and are seeking publication. From this year, the award has been expanded to all manuscripts of fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry written by Australian citizens and permanent residents. This means we no longer require the writer or manuscript to have a connection with Western Australia. The winner will receive a cash prize of $10,000, courtesy of Copyright Agency, and will be offered a publishing contract by UWA Publishing.

The 2019 Award is open for submissions from midday WST Tuesday 15 May 2018. Further information and an online submission form can be found at https://uwap.uwa.edu.au/pages/the-dorothy-hewett-award-for-an-unpublished-manuscript

Dorothy Hewett (1923-2002) is considered one of Australia’s leading writers whose work captures and disrupts ideas of normalcy in twentieth century Australian culture. As a staunch feminist and, for a long time, a communist, Hewett gave voice to the marginalised. In 1986, Hewett was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her services to literature. Hewett won the Western Australian Premier’s Poetry Award in 1994 and 1995 for her collections Peninsula and Collected Poems: 1940-1995.

The judges’ for the 2019 award are Terri-ann White, Director UWA Publishing; Elfie Shiosaki, Lecturer in the School of Indigenous Studies at The University of Western Australia; and James Ley, author and contributing editor of Sydney Review of Books.