Whether it's validating your own work, buying more time to write more books or even changing the whole course of your life, winning literary prizes does make a difference.
In awe and envy, we’ve all read and watched longlist and the shortlist announcements and then, with a flurry of excitement, the eventual winners of various literary awards. Some of them come with modest prizewinnings while, in others, the cash pot is more substantial. ArtsHub surveyed a range of Australian writers to gauge how winning a prize or two may have changed their lives.
For many surveyed, being chosen as the winner was a confidence boost that meant their writing was on the right track. Alice Robinson won the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction in 2019, a prize awarded to a debut or second novel.
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
