Woollahra Digital Literary Award shortlists 15 online works for 2026

Ellena Savage, Tegan Bennett Daylight and Toby Fitch are among the writers in contention, with winners named at a Double Bay ceremony.

Woollahra Libraries has shortlisted 15 works across fiction, non-fiction and poetry for the 2026 Woollahra Digital Literary Award, which recognises writing first published online or electronically.

The fiction shortlist is Rachel Ang's Son, Gayelene Carbis's What's Polish For: 'The Price We Pay', Patrick Hunn's The Cleaver, Katy Knighton's The Suicide and Amelia Winter's Every Day for the Rest of His Life. In non-fiction, Tegan Bennett Daylight, Angela Edward, Sally Olds and Ellena Savage are in contention. The six poetry finalists are Toby Fitch, Chris Fleming, Hannah Jenkins, Abbra Kotlarczyk, Tim Loveday and Elif Sezen.

Fiction and non-fiction winners each receive $2,500 and the poetry winner $1,000. A $1,500 Digital Innovation Development grant goes to an unpublished project that uses digital elements, and a $250 Readers' Choice prize is decided by public vote.

The judges are Amy Lovat (fiction), Ashley Kalagian Blunt (non-fiction), Luke Patterson (poetry) and Justin Wolfers (digital innovation). Winners were due to be named at Woollahra Library at Double Bay on Wednesday 4 November.