Lore White, ‘As an artist I see so many opportunities I’d like to take part in, but find the entry fees to be wildly expensive. Often there is no subsidised option for people on low or no income.’ Photo: Shutterstock.
Many literary competitions require submission entry fees. It’s an unspoken assumption that such fees are necessary to pay for administrative costs of the running of the prize itself, and also to help pay for the labour of the judges, who have to read hundreds of entries, of varying length and merit.
However, there’s often a lack of transparency in how these funds are actually accounted for, which leads to a widespread belief that fee-paying competitions carry an unfair bias for those with monetary advantage.
Thuy On is the Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian.
She has three collections of poetry published by the University of Western Australian Press (UWAP): Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025).
Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy
