PINNED POST: Wakefield Weekly Writing Competition

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WW Writing Competition

The Wakefield Weekly Writing Competition is an exciting monthly challenge for authors Australia-wide. Each month, we’ll release a new prompt for authors to respond to. The prize for the winning author (or authors) includes gift vouchers and the publication of winning entries right here on the Wakefield Press blog.

We’d like the competition to help writers and researchers build readerships, help spread Wakefield’s own name and news of our books, and, who knows, perhaps help seed a few books of the future. 

We announce the new prompt once a month in our newsletter, with this page updated shortly afterwards. The best way to keep on top of the current prompt is to subscribe to the Wakefield Weekly here.

Read on for the boring things, like the terms and conditions, and the fun things, like the prizes on offer!

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Launching Stephanie Radok’s UNDER THE BED

Last week, Stephanie Radok’s Under the Bed was launched at the State Library of South Australia by Melinda Rankin, Director of Fabrik Arts + Heritage in Lobethal. Attendees were surrounded by etchings from Stephanie’s exhibition, Inside a Book, showing until Wednesday 30 April 2025.

We’re pleased now to be able to share Melinda’s thoughtful launch speech, which celebrates Stephanie’s knack for finding the beauty in the mundane.

Read Melinda’s speech in full below.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: Susan Hobson and Kristin Murdock win the March WWWC!

We’re pleased to announce the winners of the March WWWC: Susan Hobson and Kristin Murdock. We couldn’t decide between their entries, so this March 2025’s WWWC is a jointly awarded prize. Read Susan’s entry below, and find Kristin’s here.

Susan’s ‘Festival Madness’ is an immersive ride through the waves of a crowded festival.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: Kristin Murdock and Susan Hobson win the March WWWC!

blue banner with white and yellow text reading: Wakefield Weekly Writing Competition. Winner Announcement: Festival Madness

We’re pleased to announce the winners of the March WWWC: Kristin Murdock and Susan Hobson. We couldn’t decide between their entries, so this month’s is a jointly awarded prize. Read Kristin’s entry below, and find Susan’s here.

Kristin’s ‘Revenge Takes the Cake’ is a rollicking poem about baking, competition, and sabotage.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: Wakefield Press Acquires Lyn Dickens’s Salt Upon the Water

banner image announcing Wakefield Press's acquisition of debut author Lyn Dickens's award-winning novel SALT UPON THE WATER

Wakefield Press is delighted to announce the acquisition of ANZ rights to Salt Upon the Water by Lyn Dickens, winner of the 2024 South Australian Literary Awards Unpublished Manuscript Award. Lyn is represented by Alexandra Christie of Curtis Brown Australia.

Find out more about this exciting new novel below.

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WWWC Runner-up Edition: ‘Rolling back the years’

Wakefield Weekly Writing Competition: Runner-up Edition in yellow text on blue background

The WWWC might be taking a short breather over the holiday period, but we certainly haven’t lost our appetite for interesting writing! We’ve decided to share some runner-ups to previous editions of the WWWC challenge, beginning first with Pam Makin, whose response to November’s prompt ‘rolling back the years’ was such a close second that it would be unfair to deprive our readers.

Read Pam’s deceptively simple ‘Ghost of a Chance’ below.

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GUEST POST: Dr David Faber on Harry Hodgetts: The flawed broker behind Don Bradman’s move to Adelaide by John Davis

From ‘Big Shot’ to ‘Swindler’, racier newspapers gloated when Harry Hodgetts was convicted of fraud and false pretences in September 1945. But how did things go so wrong for Hodgetts?

In Harry Hodgetts: The flawed broker behind Don Bradman’s move to Adelaide, John Davis writes the complex story of this hard-working, gifted social climber, his fall into bankruptcy and a prison cell, and the scandal that haunted Bradman’s reputation.

In this special guest post, Dr David Faber of Flinders University provides his reflections on this riveting biography.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: Wakefield Press acquires Troy Hunter’s latest Gus mystery

Wakefield Press is delighted to announce the acquisition of world rights to Troy Hunter’s Gus and the Burning Stones, the sequel to his smash-hit debut Gus and the Missing Boy, via Jane Novak Literary Agency. Gus and the Burning Stones is slated for publication in July 2025.

Find out more about this exciting new acquisition below.

Author image credit: Tony Zara Photography

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