Kathleen Mitchell Literary Award

Who can apply

To apply for this Award you must:

• be aged 30 years or under at the 4 February 2025 closing date
• have been born in Australia or the United Kingdom, or are currently an Australian citizen
• have been living in Australia for the 12 months preceding the 4 February 2025 closing date.

These are the terms established by deed of the Kathleen Mitchell Award and there are no exceptions to these requirements. To be eligible for this Award you must provide proof of your Australian citizenship or of your place of birth (e.g. birth certificate, passport). If you will have difficulty providing this, please contact Artists Services to discuss your situation.

The recipient of the Kathleen Mitchell Award must provide proof provide of Australian citizenship, or that they were born in Australia or the United Kingdom. This may involve Creative Australia staff witnessing your passport or birth certificate.

Please note you must self-nominate for this Award, and only one entry 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 novel or novella has not been published or accepted for publication within the 2 years prior to the 4 February 2025 closing date
• 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.

Assessment Process

Your entry will be reviewed 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.

Assessment Criteria

Submissions will be assessed against one assessment criteria.

• Quality

Industry advisors will assess the artistic and literary merit of your novel or novella.

Applications must be submitted via Creative Australia’s Application Management System.

If you are registering to use the 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.

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 novel or novella in its entirety. See Support Material for more information.

Your submission must include your novel or novella in its entirety.

In your support material you must include the ISBN for your novel or novella, OR a letter from the publisher confirming publication. This should demonstrate your novel or novella was published or accepted for publishing within the 2 years prior to the Award closing date.

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.