Emerging Tasmanian Aboriginal Writers Award

Congratulations to Luana Towney on winning the 2020 Emerging Tasmanian Aboriginal Writers Award for her short story The Girl in Red. You’ll be able to read this, and the 2019 winning poem Blackscape by Kartanya Maynard, in the September issue of Island Magazine.

Special thanks to Jim puralia meenamatta Everett for presenting the award.


Thank you to our funding and project partners without whom the Hidden Stories program and Emerging Tasmanian Aboriginal writers Award would not have been possible this year.

Emerging Tasmanian Aboriginal Writer Award 2019

The: My Tasmanian Landscape and the judges were inaugural 2017 winner Adam Thompson, Jillian Mundy and Theresa Sainty.

The winner was Kartanya Maynard with her poem Blackscape

Congratulations to the Emerging Tasmanian Aboriginal Writer Award winner, Kartanya Maynard!


Inaugural Emerging Tasmanian Aboriginal Writers Award 2017

TheTasWriters (then the Tasmanian Writers Centre) was delighted to announce Launceston-based writer Adam Thompson as the winner of the inaugural Emerging Tasmanian Aboriginal Writers Award (ETAWA) in 2017.

The award was presented at Hobart’s Theatre Royal, at the opening event of the 2017 Tasmanian Writers and Readers Festival and Hidden Stories program.

Respected Tasmanian Aboriginal writer, puralia meenamatta (Jim Everett), presented Adam with the award for his short story, Sonny. Adam will received prize money and professional support via membership of the Tasmanian Writers Centre.

Adam is a pakana (Tasmanian Aboriginal) man with a passion for telling stories about Aboriginal themes and characters. He has worked for the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre for 15 years and has a sound knowledge of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community and the issues that are important to Tasmanian Aboriginal people. Earlier in the year, Adam received a Tasmanian Government Aboriginal Arts grant to produce a compilation of short stories under the guidance of a mentor. He has also been co-writing a short-form comedy series for television.

2017 entries, which were assessed by judges Bruce Pascoe, Julie Gough and Jillian Mundy, addressed the theme: Reflections on being Aboriginal in Tasmania today.