The Peter Cowan 600 Word Short Story Competition was launched by PCWC in 2010 in honour of our namesake Peter Cowan (1914–2002), one of Western Australia’s most esteemed writers and academics. It is fitting that the competition celebrates short story writing as Peter Cowan published several volumes of short fiction and is well known for writing in this genre. Peter was the recipient of several major writing awards and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1987. He was named a Western Australian State Living Treasure in 1999.

Our competition opens for submissions in March and closes in April every year.

Congratulations to our 2024 winners!!! You can read the winning stories and the report from our wonderful Judge, Rashida Murphy, by clicking on the button below. All entrants were sent a notification of the winners and a copy of the e-magazine but we did get some bouncebacks (although it’s also a good idea to check your junk mail) so apologies if you didn’t hear from us. Thank you to all who entered. It was a wonderful year for great stories!