Dal Stivens Literary Award
The Dal Stivens Award is presented biennially to an author, aged 30 or under, for a short story or essay of the highest literary merit.
About this Award
The Dal Stivens Award is presented biennially to an author, aged 30 or under, for a short story or essay of the highest literary merit. Your short story or essay must have been published or accepted for publication within the 12 months prior to the Award closing date, with proof of publication supplied in your support material.
Self-published works will not be accepted.
The recipient will receive $15,000. You may submit up to two entries.
The Dal Stivens Award was established in the will of Juanita Cragen in 2007. Dal Stivens (1911-1997) was an Australian writer and founding President of the Australian Society of Authors in 1963. His written works include eight collections of short stories, from The Tramp and Other Stories (1936) to The Unicorn and Other Tales (1976).
Dal Stiven’s contribution to Australian literature was huge. He published his first novel, Jimmy Brockett, in 1948. As a freelance writer, his short stories were regularly published in Lilliput, The Times Literary Supplement, The Observer and John O’London’s Weekly. In 1969, Stivens was described in The Australian Book Review as “in the front ranks of Australia’s short story writers”. He won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1970 for best Australian novel with A Horse of Air and in 1981 he won the Patrick White Literary Award for his contribution to Australian Literature. He was honoured with a Special Achievement Award in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 1994. Dal also wrote under the pseudonyms Jack Tarrant, John Sidney, Sam Johnson and L’Arva Street. Stivens was the Foundation President of the Australian Society of Authors and was instrumental in establishing the rights of Australian authors within the commercial sphere.
The Award is administered by Creative Australia on behalf of Perpetual as trustee.
A list of previous recipients is available here.
Who can apply
To apply for this Award you must be:
- aged 30 years or under at the 4 February 2025 closing date
- either Australian citizens or have been permanent residents in the two years preceding the 4 February 2025 closing date.
These are the terms established by deed of the Dal Stivens Award and there are no exceptions to these requirements. To be eligible for this Award you must provide proof of your Australian citizenship or permanent residency (e.g. passport, permanent residency visa). If you will have difficulty providing this, please contact Artists Services to discuss your situation.
The successful recipient of the Dal Stivens Award must provide proof of Australian citizenship or permanent residency. This may involve Creative Australia staff witnessing your passport or permanent residency visa.
Please note you must self-nominate for this Award. A maximum of two entries per applicant will be accepted.
Who can’t apply
You can’t apply for the Award if:
- you do not hold copyright for the work you wish to submit for consideration
- your short story or essay has not been accepted for publication within the 12 months prior to the 4 February 2025 closing date
- your short story or essay has been self published
- you received a grant, or administered a grant, from Creative Australia in the past and that grant has not been satisfactorily acquitted
- you owe money to Creative Australia.
Your proposal will be assessed by Industry Advisors and Creative Australia staff. The recommended recipient will be forwarded to Perpetual, who will make the final decision.
The decision of Perpetual is final and no feedback on entries or further correspondence on decisions will be provided.
Submissions will be assessed against one assessment criteria. Industry Advisors will consider the following when assessing your application.
- Quality
Advisors will assess the artistic and literary merit of the short story or essay.
Applications for this Award are submitted via Creative Australia’s Application Management System. If you are using the system for the first time you will need to register your details to access the application form.
We do not accept entries submitted via post. Any material received by post will not be assessed and will be returned to the sender. If you think you will have difficulty submitting your entry online, please contact Artists Services.
The application form includes the following questions:
- title of the work
- about you: Tell us about yourself, your practice and your professional experience in 2400 characters or less.
- statistical questions (e.g. main area of practice, intended audience). Please note this does not impact your assessment.
Your application must include your short story or essay in its entirety. See Support Material for more information.
Your support material must include your short story or essay in its entirety.
Your support material must provide evidence that your short story or essay has been published, or has been accepted for publication, within the 12 months prior to the Award closing date. This could include a letter from the publisher or the publishing contract.
Please provide support material via URLs (weblinks) or as an uploaded PDF. URLs should be direct links to the material you wish to present.
To find out more about support material please contact Artists Services.
Key dates
Closing date: Tuesday 4 February 2025, 3pm AEDT (2.30pm ACDT; 2pm AEST; 1.30pm ACST; 12pm AWST)
Please note: Perpetual will only accept a limited number of scholarship proposals annually. Once this limit is met, no further proposals can be submitted.
Amount:
$15,000
Notification:
Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application by the end of April 2025.
Are you registering to use our Application Management System for the first time? Make sure you register well before the closing date. It can take up to two business days to process your registration.
Contact
If you need advice about applying, contact Artists Services.
Phone: 02 9215 9000
Toll-free: 1800 226 912
NRS: 1800 555 677 | Visit the NRS
Email: enquiry@creative.gov.au