Nature Writing Prize

About the 2023 Competition

• Winner's Event with keynote by author Tim Winton

  See the keynote presentation by Tim Winton here.

   

  Join us for a special evening to celebrate the 2023 winner announcement and see who will be awarded the $7,500 prize for their winning essay in the genre of ‘Writing of Place’, with a keynote presentation from author and passionate conservationist, Tim Winton.

  Wednesday 22nd November 2023, 7pm-9pm

  RMIT’s The Capitol,

  113 Swanston St, Melbourne VIC

   

  Keynote Presenter: Tim Winton
  

  Tim Winton is the author of 29 books. Listed as a National Living Treasure, few other Australian writers have had such a broad-ranging and far-reaching cultural impact, from the arts and sciences, to environmental education, and conservation policy. In June 2023, Tim Winton received an Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to literature as an author and novelist, to conservation, and to environmental advocacy.

  
  The event is proudly brought to you by The Nature Conservancy Australia and has been made possible thanks to the vision, and a generous donation, from The McLean Foundation, which promotes and celebrates the literature of nature and literature in nature in Australia.

• 2023 Shortlist

  Read more for more information on the 2023 shortlist. 

• Theme

  'Writing of Place'

• Words

  Essay between 3,000 and 5,000 words

• Prize

  $7,500 will be awarded to the winning author.

  The winning writer will be announced at a very special event in Melbourne in November 2023, featuring keynote speaker Tim Winton.

  They will also be offered for publication, with the possibility of being published in The Monthly at the discretion of Schwartz Media's editorial team. 

  An additional author receiving a Highly Commended Prize - the Rosina Joy Buckman Award, a $1,000 prize, made possible thanks to the generous support of Life at Springfield.

  The prize is open to Australian citizens and permanent residents. Participants will need to pay an entry fee of $25.

  Read the full Terms & Conditions.

• About the judges

  The competition’s judges are novelist, essayist and editor Ashley Hay and writer and environmental historian Cameron Muir.

  They will award the prize to an Australian writer whose entry is judged to be of the highest literary merit and which best explores his or her relationship and interaction with some aspect of the Australian landscape.

  Ashley Hay

  Ashley works as a writer, editor, facilitator and mentor and is based in Brisbane. Between 2018 and 2022, she was the editor of the Griffith Review where she curated, commissioned and composed sixteen editions of Australia's leading quarterly of great writing and new ideas. Learn more about Ashley Hay.

  Cameron Muir

  Cameron's essays and features have appeared in Griffith Review, Meanjin, Inside Story, Overland, The Guardian, Australian Book Review, The Canberra Times and Best Australian Science Writing, among others. He has been awarded the Griffith Review Emerging Writers’ Prize, an Australian Society of Authors Mentorship (with Bruce Pascoe), a Griffith Review Contributor’s Circle Varuna Fellowship, shortlisted for the 2019 Bragg Prize for Science Writing and was a finalist in the 2019 Eureka Prizes for Science Journalism. Cameron has a PhD in environnmental history from the Australian National University. Learn more about Cameron Muir.

Other 2021 prize recipients

• Michael Bradley - 'Crocodile Country'

  Read Crocodile Country.

  Michael Bradley is an ecologist based in North Queensland. He studies how rivers, forests and reefs support diverse communities of fish, and how they in turn support people through rich and varied fisheries. Michael has worked across the tropical landscapes of the Indo-Pacific for more than ten years, with a focus on northern Australia and Papua New Guinea.

  He is a lecturer and research scientist at James Cook University, where he works with government and non-government organisations to better manage coastal ecosystems. In his first piece of nature writing, Crocodile Country, Michael grapples with working alongside animals that see us as prey, and the very real possibility of becoming part of the food-chains he studies.

  Judge Tara June Winch of Bradley’s work said “…written with depth and a strong literary quality, investigating predator and prey in the north.”

• Marian McGuinness - 'Meditation in Stone'

  Read Meditation in Stone.

  Marian McGuinness is a Sydney-based freelance writer. From the Antarctic to the Arctic; from skull-riddled catacombs to ice cathedrals; from French wine caves to opal-bearing tunnels. 

  Marian’s interest in landscape and culture has seen her award-winning travel stories bunker down in major Australian newspapers, magazines and anthologies. Her recent story launched BBC Travel’s latest series, Nature's Curiosities.

• Jenny Sinclair - 'Twelve and a Half Kilometres of Road'

  Read Twelve and a Half Kilometres of Road.

  Jenny Sinclair is a Melbourne writer. Her work has appeared in Griffith Review, Meanjin, Best Australian Stories, The Age, Island, Verandah, The Lifted Brow, The Big Issue and on ABC radio. Her non-fiction books are Much Ado About About Melbourne (2015) and A Walking Shadow (2012). She has been on staff at The Age and has written for a wide variety of publications. She holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Melbourne, currently teaches writing at the university and was the co-winner of the 2019 Nature Writing Prize. 

  She lives and works on Wurundjeri and Dja Dja Wurrung land, with frequent excursions to the traditional country of the Djab Wurrung.

• Dave Witty - 'The Lone Tree of Mackay'

  Read The Lone Tree of Mackay.

  Dave Witty is an emerging writer, currently finishing a book on the storytelling power of trees. He moved to Melbourne in 2014 after spending several years living in Central Queensland where, among the gaunt eucalypts of the Peak Ranges, he developed his love of the Australian landscape. An urban planner during the day, Dave enjoys leaving the city behind at the weekend and exploring the bush. He also volunteers for the Hobsons Bay Wetlands Centre.

  Judge Tara June Winch of Witty’s work said “…an informative enquiry into Queensland’s history of slavery and bondage on the sugarcane fields, written with gentle meditative control.”