In an exciting celebration of Western Australia’s literary talent, Writing WA is proud to announce the shortlist for the 2025 Literary Coasters Initiative. This unique project will see thousands of eco-coasters distributed across cafes, bookshops, pubs, writers’ centres, and other partner venues throughout WA, showcasing powerful excerpts of prose and poetry by some of the state’s most inspiring authors.
Eight published WA authors and poets have been shortlisted for this initiative, chosen for their close alignment with the Selection Criteria. The final four featured works are now set to be determined by public vote. Voting is free and open to all members of the public, including the shortlisted authors themselves. Each individual is permitted one vote in the prose category and one in the poetry category.
For PDF versions of this information click the links below:
Literary Coaster Shortlist Summary
Literary Coasters Prose Shortlist
Literary Coasters Poetry Shortlist
Shortlisted prose works:
1. ‘Some trees are eerie, ghost-grey and bare of leaves, their branches like clawed skeletal fingers clutching at the sky, portents of death warning her away. The roads are dotted with billboards that direct her to the next KFC, service centre or famous bakehouse. Government signs ask if she’s taken a break yet. Hannah thinks, No, never.’
From Down the Rabbit Hole by Shaeden Berry (Echo Publishing, 2024).
2. ‘I spent years being Orson, Thea and Gus’s mum. My existence was validated – without me no them, and vice versa. It was lovely until a few years ago when I looked up and the three of them had gone off to lead their own lives, and me a mourning vapour trail in their wake.’
From Audrey’s Gone Awol by Annie de Monchaux (Ultimo Press, 2024).
3. ‘The ocean asked no questions, held no prejudices, didn’t care who rode the waves or swam in the water. It simply flowed. He saw the waves coming and paddled into position. The wave lifted him up, shot him forward and he eased into the void.’
From Hunter by Campbell Jefferys (Rippple Books, 2012).
4. ‘You know you’re back in Perth when there are no warnings every twenty seconds about unattended luggage and a beagle’s wagging its tail and the guy at customs says, g’day, waves you to the door like he’ll meet you later at the pub.’
From Feet to the Stars by Susan Midalia (UWA Publishing, 2015).
5. ‘Gravel roads cut long lines through this land to arrive at broken down machinery and abandoned shearing sheds. Everything seemed to be immovable, even in the wind. Elora felt a foreign shudder of loneliness. It was land that belonged not to faces or voices, but to rusted surnames on gates made of steel.’
From Eta Draconis by Brendan Ritchie (UWA Publishing, 2023).
6. ‘We lay on the roof, passing the bottle of bourbon back and forth. The beautiful thing about a small town is there’s no light pollution. You can see every star in the night sky, even the ones that don’t have names. They’d be invisible in the city, but here you can see them, struggling, twinkling against the black.’
From Invisible Boys by Holden Sheppard (Fremantle Press, 2019).
Shortlisted poetry works:
1. ‘I wish that grief could be measured;
that I could place it on a set of scales
or pull out a ruler
and determine how much space
it needs in my heart.
I wish that grief was stamped
with a use-by date
so I could know how long it would stay
painfully fresh.’
From On Matters of Life and Death by Ron Barton (Ginninderra Press, 2018).
2. ‘A possum-like inflorescence
gestates beneath gums
cream, gold, and brown
I tangle fingers in woolly hairs
belly, bottom, ears, and mouth
like lanugo in utero.’
From How to Order Eggs Sunny Side Up by Lisa Collyer (Life Before Man, 2023).
3. ‘There was a time when the girl
never thought about the colour blue, or blood,
could be amused by the flicking of a lit match,
the delicate shiver of a spider orchid;
summer holidays stretched out, days dropping time
like a missed knitting stitch.’
From First Blood by Natalie Damjanovich-Napoleon (Ginninderra Press, 2019).
4. ‘Like a feast laid out
On a long table in
Front of me
My eyes welcome
The sight of my
Ancestral lands
Singing in wildflowers’
From False Claims of Colonial Thieves by Charmaine Papertalk Green. NB: This book is co-authored with John Kinsella; the selected poem extract listed above is by Charmaine. (Magabala Books, 2018).
5. ‘You are a soft sprouting seed
an imaginary hand
unfinished phrase
You are the coins I find beneath the bed
you are no more milk
a frayed hem
the bones of fish
You are a rice paper lantern
the open face of gerberas
an invasion of moths
my broken shoe’
From Therapy Like Fish by Marcella Polain (John Leonard Press, 2008).
6. ‘that old dog never returned
we waited, didn’t let anyone
drink from her bowl
she trots through me when the air becomes still’
From Coming to Nothing by Morgan Yasbincek (Puncher and Wattmann, 2023).
Important dates:
Voting opens 24 January 2025.
Voting closes 14 February, 12 pm AWST.
Winners announced late February 2025.
Please note: The four most-voted excerpts will be featured on the eco-coasters, joining selections from four Treasured/Deceased WA authors already chosen for this initiative. The final list of all eight authors will be revealed in February 2025.
ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED
About the Project
The Literary Coasters Initiative is part of Changing the Conversation: Stories in All Spaces, a 2024-25 program facilitated by Writing WA and generously funded by the State of Western Australia through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries. The project aims to amplify WA literary voices through cross-artform collaborations and innovative public engagement strategies, encouraging readers to engage with local literature in fresh and creative ways.
‘Writing WA received 40 nominations for the Literary Coasters Initiative, with each one showcasing the remarkable depth and diversity of Western Australia’s literary talent. Reviewing these submissions was both inspiring and challenging, as each extract of work offered a unique perspective, a strong sense of place, and exceptional craftsmanship. With such a high standard across all submissions, narrowing the list to just eight living authors was no easy task. We are excited to now engage the public in deciding the final selection and look forward to announcing the chosen authors in 2025.’ Shannon Britza, Project Manager.