2026 Boroondara Literary Award winners

Content components

Congratulations to the winners of the 2026 Boroondara Literary Awards, hosted in partnership with Balwyn Rotary.

Held annually since 1999, these awards celebrate the creativity of writers and poets within the City of Boroondara and Victoria.

See the full list of awarded entries for this year below.

You can also read the winning entries from both this year and previous years in our annual Literary Awards anthologies. Search for the anthology in the library catalogue.

Open short story

Place	Name	Title
First	Jessica Ellwood	The Things They Leave Behind
Second	Kevti Desai	The Shady Place
Third	Stephanie Santa Maria	More Ginger Next Time
Highly Commended	Paulette Gittins	Kelp
Highly Commended	Rebecca Hodges	The Last Gardener of Burke Road
Highly Commended	Kah Yan Loo	Untethered
Keith Carroll Award	Stephanie Santa Maria	More Ginger Next Time

Young writers prose

Junior Prose

Place	Name	Title
First	July Qi Yi He	Where They Went
Second	Owen Elshaug	The Kid Who Killed Naplan
Third	Olivia Ren	The Colour That Never Faded
Highly Commended	Lucy Cochrane	Collapsing Worlds
Highly Commended	Abigail Tam	The Cherry Blossom Tree
Highly Commended	Kieran Seresinghe	The Tsunami

Middle Prose

Place	Name	Title
First	Lielle Galon	In Between
Second	Charlotte Parker	"Normal"
Third	Matilda Hall	Over and Under
Highly Commended	Katrina Du	Confession Draft
Highly Commended	Gigi Dinh	The Shape of Quiet
Highly Commended	Lucian Lusi	The Average School Day

Senior Prose

Place	Name	Title
First	Weirong Li	A Bowl of Belonging
Second	Sienna Vrieze	Afterimage
Third	Alex Zhang	We Remember [You]
Highly Commended	Chloe Santosa	The Physics of Disappearing
Highly Commended	Emily Wu	In Remembrance of Bluer Skies
Highly Commended	Camille Brown	Too Late

Young writers poetry

Junior Poetry

Place	Name	Title
First	Olivia Ren	What Do They Want From Me
Second	Abby Gleeson	A Flower is Like Life
Third	Colin Chen	The Pearl and Her Oyster
Highly Commended	Erisa Chen	Audrey
Highly Commended	Saskia Trollope	The Notebook

Middle Poetry

Place	Name	Title
Equal First	Lielle Galon	Halfway There
Equal First	Eva Zhang	Old Scissors
Third	Ching Hang (Miracle) Ng	Terms and Conditions Apply
Highly Commended	Jayvier Ho	The River That Keeps A Secret Jade Green

Senior Poetry

Place	Name	Title
First	Chloe Santosa	Gilt
Second	Harry Heathcote	Still Life
Third	Sienna Vrieze	La Femme Fatale
Highly Commended	Ariana Wong	Light of Memories
Highly Commended	Summer O'Keefe	Forgive Me Father For I Have Sinned