The Best Australian Yarn: Meet the panel judging world’s richest short story competition

A number of new categories have been added to the Best Australian Yarn competition this year and the judging panels have been expanded to bring expertise to every section.

Meet the dedicated people who will be poring over the entries.

Prize Jury

Anthony De Ceglie is the Walkley Award-winning editor-in-chief of West Australian Newspapers who will again lead the Prize Jury.

Also returning this year are Rachel Bin Salleh, an experienced editor and publisher at Magabala Books in Broome, acclaimed Australian author Robert Drewe, who writes a column for The West every Saturday, and Terri-ann White, director of UWA Publishing for 14 years and who now has her own company, Upswell Publishing.

Joining them is award-winning WA author Holden Sheppard. His debut coming-of-age novel Invisible Boys won multiple accolades including the 2019 WA Premier’s Prize for an Emerging Writer while his second novel, The Brink, won Young Adult Book of the Year nationally at the 2023 Indie Book Awards.

Navitas ESL Prize

Basim Shamaoan and Miles Hitchcock have worked extensively in the English as a Second Language field with Navitas.

Hitchcock has taught ESL for more than 20 years in Japan, China and Australia and is also an accomplished writer and poet, previously winning the Melbourne Age Short Story Award and the Curtin Fiction Award.

Shamaon is a highly respected community leader in Sydney, whose work with migrants and refugees is his passion. He recently released his own book, From Iraq to Australia: Jewels from My Journey.

First Nations Storytelling Prize

Social advocate Emma Garlett will lead the judging in this new category. Garlett uses her weekly column in The West Australian and her YouTube series, Paint It Blak, to gently prod the population on Indigenous issues. She is passionate about helping her people and giving a voice to their points of view.

Youth Prize

Former school teacher Gail Anthony is the editor of the popular GenWest website for school students and a longtime editor of its predecessor, the ED! liftout in The West Australian. Anthony will work with a range of children’s and young adult authors, a publisher and education officer to judge this section.