About the Young Writers' Competition

2025 marks the sixteenth year of the Young Writers' Competition.

Open to students from Kindergarten to Year 12 who live or go to school on the Northern Beaches, the competition invites students to write an original work of creative writing using a special hero word. This year's hero word is 'Change'.

Entries are judged according to characterisation, plot, originality, and use of language and arranged into six different age group categories.

What's next?

Four finalists from each age category will be chosen by our author judges. All finalists will be contacted by Monday 30 June and their names will be listed here after that date.

Each finalist will receive a prize and their story published in an eBook as part of our Library collection. 

Winners will be announced at a special presentation event with Northern Beaches Council Mayor, Sue Heins and our author judges.

Meet our author judges

Debra Tidball: Debra Tidball is an award-winning author of picture books, short stories, poems and plays for children. With social work and children’s literature qualifications, Debra is a children’s book enthusiast with a particular passion for picture books and the profound way they can touch children’s lives. She is often distracted from her bookish activities by a very cheeky Italian Greyhound named Casper, who, like Little Dragon in her latest picture book, loves making mischief with toilet paper rolls!

Nick Long: Author, journalist, and television producer Nick Long has been up close and personal with deadly snakes, five-metre crocodiles, ruthless crime lords and unstable Alaskan glaciers. Believing that every adventure is a chance to expand the imagination, Nick’s junior fiction series The Forbidden Journal of Rufus Rumble takes readers on a hilarious and captivating journey through space. The Forbidden Journal of Rufus Rumble: Worst Space Crew Ever is Nick’s first children’s book, with the sequel set to hit the shelves in July 2025.

Nat Amore: Nat Amoore is an award-winning internationally published author of children's books - a good chunk of which have been written in our very own Northern Beaches Libraries! Her books include Secrets of a Schoolyard Millionaire, The Power of Positive Pranking, The Right Way to Rock, Graphic Novel We Run Tomorrow and the Shower Land series.
Nat is passionate about encouraging kids to read, write and explore their imaginations without boundaries.

Yvette Poshoglian: Bestselling author of over 50 books for children and young readers, Yvette writes the wildly popular Ella and Olivia series, the Puppy Diary books and the Frankie Fox Girl Spy stories, and has written historical fiction including My Australian Story: Escape from Cockatoo Island. Her new book Dear Greta is out now.

Pip Harry: Award-winning author of children and young adults, Pip's titles include Because of You, The Little Wave, Are You There, Buddha? and August & Jones. Her verse novel The Little Wave won the 2020 CBCA Book of the Year for Younger Readers, and the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Award (8-10 years). Her newest middle grade book, August & Jones, won the CBCA Shadow Judging Book of the Year 2023. Pip’s debut picture book Over or Under? is shortlisted for the ABIA Picture Book of the Year and is a CBCA Early Childhood Notable book. The Inside Dog, Drift, and Camp Spooky: Attack of the Aliants are all out in 2025. Pip is proud to call the Northern Beaches home and is a regular visitor to the local libraries to research, read and write.

Harry Cook: Harry Cook is a Northern Beaches local, an award-winning film, television, and theatre actor, writer, and LGBTQI+ activist. His writing credits includes his memoir, Pink Ink, two YA novels, Fin & Rye & Fireflies and Felix Silver, Teaspoons & Witches, and contributions to The Huffington Post, The Big Smoke, and The Guardian. He has starred in major film, TV and theatre productions, including working alongside such talents as Geena Davis and Sam Neill.

For further enquiries about the Young Writers' Competition, please contact writers.comp@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au