The University of Sydney offers numerous literary prizes designed to encourage both students and the general public to express themselves creatively through writing. Each prize requires an application process as well as submission of work on a given topic – usually essays or poems but some prizes also recognise performances and other forms of creative works. Applications must be made anonymously while entries must adhere to its specific terms and conditions.

The Christina Stead Prize for Fiction recognizes an Australian writer with the best unpublished manuscript of a novel. Established to mark Macmillan Australia’s 30th Anniversary Literary Awards Program, the Christina Stead Prize will award a cash prize of $10,000 as well as publication for their novel by Macmillan Australia.

Mercer University has awarded Elizabeth Spencer with its 2014 Sidney Lanier Prize for Southern Literature. This prize recognizes her significant career contributions to literature from the South – whether through drama, fiction or poetry – over time. Spencer taught English as an adjunct instructor at UW-Madison before publishing six novels of her own.

In 2024, Annie Zhang won the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize sponsored by Overland and Overland magazine with her story ‘Who Rattles the Night?’ set against an Australian couple learning to live with ghosts – it took home first place! On shortlist were Madeleine Rebbechi’s A Map of Underneath and Sheila Ngoc Pham’s Whack-a-Mole by both authors.

Iranian director Jafar Panahi won the top prize at this year’s 72nd Sydney Film Festival a month after taking home the Palme d’Or from Cannes, taking home $50,000 cash prize with It Was Just an Accident. Panahi received this honor through an innovative gesture as jury members left stage right and into audience to present it personally to Panahi himself.

Sidney Hillman was an esteemed professor and long-standing advocate of labor rights who strongly believed that an independent press is key for democracy. To continue his legacy, the Hillman Foundation recognizes journalists who shed light on contemporary issues from fighting for fair wages and working conditions to defending civil liberties and fighting discrimination of any sort. Winners will be honored during a gala dinner event hosted in New York City on May 13; for more information click here.