- to enter the 2022 SBS Emerging Writers' Competition; submissions open August 16–September 21 (deadline has been extended)
The SBS Emerging Writers' Competition is back for a third year. If you're a writer with an untold story that fits the 2022 theme of 'Emergence', we want to hear from you.
The 2022 judges, award-winning authors Christos Tsiolkas and Alice Pung, are both writers who didn't come from conventional literary backgrounds - a fact that motivated them to support the next generation of storytellers.
"I had no experience of the literary world, a very minimal experience of the literary world," says Tsiolkas.
"I think Alice and I probably feel a sense of responsibility to do that, to just lend a hand in terms of younger writers."
Tsiolkas is a writer, screenwriter and essayist. He has published seven novels, including Loaded and The Slap, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award, longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize, and won a host of other awards. His sixth novel, Damascus, won the 2019 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction. And his latest novel, 7 ½, was longlisted for this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award.
Pung is a writer, editor, lawyer and artist-in-residence at Melbourne University's Janet Clarke Hall. She is an award-winning author of seven novels, and her latest, One Hundred Days, was shortlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Award. She's also a recipient of an Order of Australia Medal for her contributions to Australian literature.
The pair, who have previously judged the Deborah Cass Award for Writing together, are excited to be reuniting for this competition and seeing what stories they uncover. They are also firm admirers of each other's work, with Tsiolkas describing Pung as "one of the great souls in literature" and Pung calling Tsiolkas a "wonderful writer".
They emphasised that great storytelling didn't have to mean perfect writing. That writers shouldn't feel paralysed by the urge to produce something that's too "finely polished".
"I think we're going to find some very different voices," says Pung.
She said that one thing she and Tsiolkas have in common is an understanding of impact of illiteracy and the pressures of migrant communities. Pung's mother, a Cambodian migrant, was illiterate, while Tsiolkas, whose parents immigrated from Greece, had aunts who couldn't read.
"One thing Christos and I have in common is we understand… illiteracy," she says.
Tsiolkas agreed they would be bringing their backgrounds to the competition in the search for emerging diverse writers.
"Our experiences aren't identical, but we both understand something about migration. We both understand something about class, and we are going to read with that understanding."
Christos Tsiolkas
Christos Tsiolkas is a judge for the 2022 SBS Emerging Writers' Competition. Source: Getty Images
"My dad, because he didn't read English, the books he would give me [were] really difficult books!" says Tsiolkas, who was given the likes of Charles Dickens, Henry Miller and Jane Austen to read. "There's no way I'm going to pretend that I understood them."
What the books did teach him, however, was that reading and writing is sometimes challenging. "It opened my sense that actually sometimes the great works of art require a commitment from you to actually sometimes be confused, sometimes be scared, sometimes be angry, sometimes be bored. And that work is important."
For Tsiolkas, reading widely is the basis of good writing. "I call writing an apprenticeship that doesn't end, and where we learn our craft is through reading. And then the act of writing itself teaches you how to write. No one necessarily taught me that."
Tsiolkas sees competitions like this as essential for uncovering emerging talent. "I had no experience of the literary world," he says. "Where are the spaces for someone who doesn't know this world?"
Alice Pung
Alice Pung will be judging the 2022 SBS Emerging Writers' Competition alongside Christos Tsiolkas. Source: Courtney Brown
"They were so diverse. There were older writers… there was an author who wrote about poverty in a very nuanced way," she says. "I'm really excited to find the diversity of voices that will emerge this year."
Pung has written seven books, including Her Father's Daughter, Laurinda and One Hundred Days, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award. Despite all the accolades, she admits she still gets nervous putting a written work out there for others to read. "It never leaves you. You can be a veteran author like Helen Garner; I'm sure she still gets nervous."
But fear shouldn't stop you from writing your story. "People are scared to do it. They spend more time talking about writing than actually do it. Just do it if you have a story in you," she says.
Instead, Pung's advice is to write as though no one is reading. "I was really lucky that I was quite reckless and I had no audience in my 20s. So I wrote Unpolished Gem. If I wrote that book today, there's a lot I wouldn't put in there because I'm not as reckless, I'm 40.
"So don't think of your audience or if you are to think of your audience, don't think of a big group of people. Think of a singular person that you're writing to and make them very specific."
The SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition is open for entries until September 21. Write a non-fiction memoir story on the theme of ‘Emergence’ for your chance to be awarded the $5000 first place prize, $3000 second place or two runners up prizes of $1000. The top entries will also be published in an anthology by Hardie Grant. Go to to register and find out more.
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More on the SBS Emerging Writers' Competition
The SBS Emerging Writers' Competition returns for 2022
