The Furphy Literary Award Open Short Story Competition for 2026 is open for entries, inviting Australian citizens and current residents to step into the spotlight with a powerful short story that captures Australian life in all its diversity. Now in its seventh year, the free-to-enter national competition offers a $15,000 first prize and publication opportunities. If you’re feeling inspired but want to give your short story an extra polish before submitting, Short Story Essentials is the perfect place to refine your craft and make every word count.
From the Furphy Story website:
Everyone can write at least one good story. That was the belief of J. F. Archibald, the editor and founder of the famous nineteenth-century weekly, The Bulletin, who invited his readers to become contributors. It was this encouragement that led Joseph Furphy, working in his brother’s foundry at Shepparton, to write his ‘offensively Australian’ novel, Such is Life, using the pseudonym of ‘Tom Collins’. The book, full of stories derived from Joseph’s experience in the Riverina and told in a voice uniquely his own, is now acknowledged to be a classic of Australian literature
In the spirit of Archibald and honouring the author of Such is Life, the Furphy Literary Award has been established to promote and extend the tradition of story telling, both factual and fictional, that is so much part of Australian life.
There will be an annual award for a prose work, which may be fiction or narrative non-fiction, by a writer aged 18 years or more at the date of closing of entries.
Theme: Australian Life in all its diversity
Length: No more than 5,000 words
Reward: Prize Money: 1st Prize – $15,000, 2nd Prize – $3,000, 3rd Prize – $2,000
LaTrobe University Shepparton Residency*, Publication of selected works in annual publication
Competition commences: Saturday February 1, 2026
Closing date for entries: Wednesday 11.59PM April 30, 2026
*Details of residency to be finalised after completion of awards event.
Important Conditions of Entry
- Entrants must be 18 years or more at the closing date of the competition.
- Authors must be Australian citizens (anywhere in the world) or current Australian residents.
- Entries must be original work and the author’s own work and must not have been generated in any way by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program.
- There is a limit of two entries per person (including anyone writing under a pseudonym).
- Entries must not have won a previous award or competition.
- Entries must be unpublished at the time of submission and remain unpublished until after the winner is notified at the awards ceremony at the end of July 2026. Publication includes in print or any type of online publication.
