Young Writers’ Competition

Celebrating 16 years of the Young Writers' Competition, the 2025 theme word was 'Change'. 

Please join us in congratulating this year’s winners.

2025 Winners and finalists

Category 1: Kindergarten - Year 2, judged by author Debra Tidball

• Winner: Mia Bennett for The Nervous Ice-Cream
• Runner Up: Christopher Bai for Diary of a Chick
• Highly Commended: Josh Asigno for Sam and the Snowy Portal Adventure
• Highly Commended: Joey Shen for Invasion    

Category 2: Years 3 - 4, judged by author Nick Long

• Winner: Georgia Greenwell for The Drop of Life
• Runner Up: Rose Hastie for Emeralds and Diamonds
• Highly Commended: Laura Holden for 2 Homes
• Highly Commended: Mia Jones for Stella and Scales

Category 3: Years 5 - 6, judged by author Nat Amore

• Winner: Maya Gaffney by Are You Listening?
• Runner Up: Emma Kate Cooper for Crumpet’s Little Story
• Highly Commended: Abigail McCabe for The Destination
• Highly Commended: Kiana O’Farrell for The Clockmaker’s Change

Category 4: Years 7 - 8, judged by author Yvette Poshoglian

• Winner: Moana Chujo for Silent Strings
• Runner Up: Jeana Shen for The Currency of Memory
• Highly Commended: Eugene Lin for Memories of the Sand
• Highly Commended: Evelyn Christopher for Elsie

Category 5: Years 9 - 10, judged by author Pip Harry

• Winner: Alice Surace for The Tides of Change
• Runner Up: Zoe Mason for Typing…
• Highly Commended: Noah Gonçalves Ferreira for Moonlight Beneath the Sun
• Highly Commended: Lok Tin Samuel Shen for Procedural

Category 6: Years 11 - 12, judged by author Harry Cook

• Winner: Maya Reed for Nine Years
• Runner Up: Xenia Beck for Just a Notebook
• Highly Commended: Annika Mills for Fragments of a Fractured Mind
• Highly Commended: Rosanna Robertson for Route 835

2025 Young Writers' Finalists eBook

Flip through the eBook or download:

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 with four finalists in each category.