Our Judges

We are so grateful for the generosity of the judges of our contests.

We could not do this without them

This year’s judges are members of Elwood Writers in Australia: Barry Lee Thompson and Margaret McCaffrey. Founded in 2007, the group’s work spans a diversity of styles and genres, and is recognised and published internationally. Their debut anthology, Every Second Tuesday, launched in 2020 and quickly sold out. Elwood Writers regularly creates stories for Vision Australia Radio’s weekly literary program Cover to Cover. Visit elwoodwriters.com to find out more.

Barry is the author of Broken Rules and Other Stories (Transit Lounge). His book, supported by Creative Victoria and a Varuna fellowship, was a finalist in the Queensland Literary Awards. Competition wins include the Overland Victoria University Short Story Prize and the Dazed Short Story Competition. His work has been shortlisted and commended in events such as The Age Short Story Award and the Bridport Prize, and he holds a diploma from the Museo de la Palabra microfiction competition. Barry’s novel-in-progress, Afterdark, is supported by the Victorian Government’s Sustaining Creative Workers Initiative. Born in Liverpool, UK, he now lives and works in Melbourne’s western suburbs, on Wurundjeri land. You’ll find him online at barryleethompson.com

Margaret has a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Wilkes University, Pennsylvania. While in Wilkes-Barre, she cut her teeth with readings at two spoken word events in bars downtown. In the United States she has stories published by San Fedele Press, Door is A Jar and Clairitage Press. In Australia her work is published in The Human Writers, Oxygen6, 20 Artists, The Age and other publications. Margaret writes and muses at margaretmccaffrey.net.