There's never been a better time to get creative!
The competition culminates with prizes being awarded in two formats: writing and art across three age groups: 12 to 15, 16 to 18 and 19 to 24 years.
The winning entries are displayed in a dedicated public exhibition, scheduled this year for the first time in Camperdown’s Chrissie Cotter Gallery.
With 176 awesome entries last year, the standard and diversity of work exceeded all expectations. Check out the amazing winners and shortlisted entries below.
A digital presentation allowed the judges to give valuable feedback and hear interesting insights from young people about their work. View the 2021 digital presentation here.
About the awards
Writing Award
Submit a piece of writing (1000 words), either a short story, a fan fiction, poetry, review, or a piece of prose responding to an item from the Inner West Libraries collection.
Art Award
Submit a photo of an artwork, (drawing, painting, photography, collage, sculpture) or digital piece inspired by or responding to an item from the Inner West Libraries’ collection.
The art and writing works can reference any item from the Inner West Library and History collection. This includes print, CD, DVD, books, magazines as well as every item in our digital collection which encompasses newspapers, magazines, DVDs, audiobooks and digital books and our local history online archives. View our full collection here.
Our local history archives can also be found here (accessed by the right-hand toolbar)
Judging panel
Inner West Libraries are thrilled to welcome the judging panel for 2022.
Vivian Pham:
Winner – 2021 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist.
Vivian Pham is a Vietnamese-Australian fiction writer, closet poet, amateur screenwriter, university student and hopeful dropout if any of the aforementioned ventures take flight. Her father was a Vietnamese boat refugee, and she grew up loving stories because she knew there was one inside of him.
In 2018 and 2019, Vivian attended the International Congress of Youth Voices and shared a stage with successful writers and activists like Dave Eggers, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Rep. John Lewis and Khaled Hosseini. It is her greatest hope to have an impact on political issues through her creative work.
Her debut novel The Coconut Children was shortlisted for the Voss Literary Prize and both the NSW and Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.
Andrew Pippos:
Winner – Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction 2021
Andrew is an Inner West writer of fiction and narrative nonfiction, and a former journalist. He is of Greek Australian Heritage and his works celebrate the everyday multiculturalism of Australia.
Andrew’s debut novel Lucky’s was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin and Prime Ministers Literary Awards 2021, amongst others.
Carmel Byrne:
Carmel is the founding director of Scratch Art Space in Marrickville. Carmel works in multiple mediums and has won multiple awards for her work. As a working artist for many years, Carmel has exhibited extensively in galleries across the Inner West and beyond.
Alex Bebbington:
Alex Bebbington is an exciting young artist whose works focus on environmentalism and the natural world. He recently exhibited at White’s Creek Cottage in Lilyfield. The Epochs in Ecology exhibition was the culmination of Alex’s research and work during his year-long residency at the cottage.
How to enter
Enter your submission for the Young Artist Award here (Open 1 April 2022)
Enter your submission for the Young Writer Award here (Open 1 April 2022)
Categories and prizes
Young Writers Award and Young Artists Award
Open to:
Ages 12-15
Ages 16-18
Ages 19-24
Prizes:
First prize for each age group in each category:
$500 cash
Runner-up prize: $250 cash
Librarian’s Choice: $100 cash
Closing date for submissions Friday, 31 July 2022
View full terms and conditions (PDF 155KB)
View full terms and conditions (DOCX 36.6KB)
2021 Awards
In 2021 entrants were asked to submit a piece of writing (1000 words), either a short story, a fan fiction, poetry, review or a piece of prose responding to an item from the Inner west Libraries collection.
Judges in the writing awards for 2021 were Nadia Wheatley and Ursula Dubosarsky and for art awards 2021 are painter and drawer Carmel Byrne and photographer Adrian Cook.
Congratulations to all the winners and runners up and thank you to everyone who took part.
Winning writing entries
Note: All of the following entries are works of fiction.
Runner up writing entries
Note: All of the following entries are works of fiction.
Youth librarian’s picks writing – Highly commended entries
Note: All of the following entries are works of fiction.
Winning art entries
- Winner 12 to 15 years: Isabel Carrig - Homage to Basquiat
- Winner 16 to 18 years: Yesha Young - Girl on The Bus
- Winner 19 to 24 years: Tilda Clarke - Stitched Memory
Runner up art entries
- Runner Up 12 to 15 years: Scarlett Simoneau - Alderman Cat
- Runner Up 16 to 18 years: Valentina Guarna - Decommissioned Past
- Runner Up 19 to 24 years: Hillary Shephard - WEIßRUSSLAND
Youth librarian’s picks art – Highly commended entries
- James Nguyen - Daily Life
- Oliver Whitehouse - Afloat
- Mia Economou - Forest Bathing
Gallery of winning and runner up art entries
Click on the image thumbnails to scroll through the gallery.
Meet the 2021 Young Creatives
2021 Judges
Art award presentation video
Writing award presentation video
Writing entries shortlist
12 to 15 year category
16 to 18 year category
19 to 24 category
Art entries shortlist
Click on the thumbnail image to scroll through the gallery
2020 Awards
Our 2020 awards closed on 31 July and we had over 150 entries.
First prize winners received $500 and runners up $250.
The judging panel: Ursula Dubosarsky and Nadia Wheatley for the writing and Dub Leffler and Ronojoy Ghosh for art.
Entrants were asked to submit a piece of writing (1000 words), either a review, a fan fiction, poetry or a piece of prose responding to an item from the Inner west Council Libraries collection or an artwork inspired by or in response to a resource in the Library.
Congratulations to all the winners and runners up and thank you to everyone who took part.
Winning writing entries
Note: All of the following entries are works of fiction.
Runner up writing entries
Note: All of the following entries are works of fiction.
Winning art entries
- Winner 12 to 15 years: Oliver Whitehouse -Around the Corner
- Winner 16 to 18 years: Mia Economou - Cooks River
- Winner 19 to 24 years: Augustine Flett - Blueprint
Runner up art entries
- Runner Up 12 to 15 years: Suenna Jeong -Ashitakas and the Kodamas
- Runner Up 16 to 18 years; Leo Lorents -Anarchy in Gotham
- Runner Up 19 to 24 years: Bridget Staal - How to do nothing domestic
Gallery of winning and runner up art entries
Click on the image thumbnails to scroll through the gallery.
Meet the winners, runner ups and judges!
Click on the image thumbs to enlarge and for details.
Video presentation
Watch our video and hear what the judges and recipients had to say about the 2020 Young Creatives program.
Writing entry short list
12 to 15 year category
16 to 18 year category
19 to 24 category
Art entry short list