UQP Mentorship Prize for Under-represented Writers

UQP is delighted to announce a mentorship and residency prize for previously unpublished authors from communities that are under-represented in Australian writing.

Publishing Director Madonna Duffy says:

UQP has long been supporting the writing of marginalised and under-represented authors. Since founding the David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Indigenous Author in the late 1980s and the Glendower Award for an Unpublished Writer in the 1990s, we have been focussed on discovery of new talent. This new mentorship offers prospective authors from under-represented communities the space, time, financial support and professional development that is needed to write. We can’t wait to see what brilliant talent it unearths.

Two mentorship prize winners will be announced in November 2025.

They will each receive:

1. Prize money of $5000.
2. A residency at UQP’s office at The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, including:
   1. Return flights and accommodation in Brisbane for the residency (if required);
   2. Online or in-person sessions with an experienced writing mentor matched with the winning author;
   3. Editorial mentoring with a UQP editor;
   4. A professional development session with senior UQP staff on marketing, publicity, rights and sales.
3. Consideration of the final manuscript by a UQP publisher with an option to publish the work.

This prize will enrich the diversity of Australian stories by supporting and mentoring under-represented writers towards book publication and a sustainable career.

UQP is looking for talented emerging authors who have 5,000 words of a new work in the following categories:

1. Fiction
2. Non-fiction
3. Children’s fiction (not picture books)

Entries for the prize will open on Wednesday 21 May and will close on Friday 1 August.

A shortlist will be announced in October 2025, with the two winners announced in November.

For more information, visit uqp.com.au