Announcing THE LOUIE AWARD 2023 winner

The winner of the 2023 The Louie Award for fast fiction crime writing is Tegan Huntley for her story - Birth Day. Congratulations Tegan!

The Louie Award is Australia’s fast fiction crime writing award. It is for stories of up to 500 words. The award is sponsored by Dr Antonio Di Dio in celebration of his late father Luigi and is run by the Australian Crime Writers Association. The winner of the award receives $750.

This year’s competition, received 84 entries. The theme word was “locked” and the judges were delighted to report that there were many wide and varied interpretations of the theme!

The judges also nominated two highly commended writers:

David Banney for his story - Tod and Linda Brandon, for her story - The Job.

All three stories are available to read on the Australian Crime Writers Association website. As well as the winner receiving $750 cash, all three authors receive a certificate of commendation.

The winner, Tegan Huntley, is a former journalist and court reporter from Western Australia who started writing fiction about three years ago. Tegan has previously received a special commendation in the Scarlet Stiletto awards and had a story published in Three Can Keep a Secret, an anthology of short stories published by Night Parrot Press.

“The idea for this story had been rattling around in my head for a while, but I almost shelved it because I thought it was too dark - perhaps there’s no such thing in crime fiction,” Huntley said.

“What I love about this competition is that it allowed me to take risks that I might not have taken with a longer piece of work. Seeing it come together in under 500 words was the most satisfying part of the process,” she said.

“I was feeling guilty for cheating on my long-term project when I wrote this story - now I’m so glad I did. It’s made me believe I can do this. Thank you to the Australian Crime Writers Association for the opportunity.”

The Louie Award complements Australian Crime Writers Association’s long standing and internationally recognised Ned Kelly Awards for Australian crime writing.

The Australian Crime Writers Association is dedicated to promoting Australian crime, thriller and mystery writing. The addition of The Louie Award helps raise awareness of the strength of the Australian crime writing scene and bring a new audience of readers and writers to the crime genre.

For further information or digital assets contact: info@austcrimewriters.com and visit our website www.austcrimewriters.com