The Echo is joining forces with Creative Mullum to re-launch the Echo Short Story Competition. Select stories will be published in The Byron Shire Echo and here on www.echo.net.au.
Budding writers, old timers and first-time flyers are invited to submit a story of 500–1,500 words using the hook ‘The Hitchhiker’. The hook can be buried in a sentence, far off in the distance, it could be the name of a band playing at a pub, or it could be the centrepiece of your story! Stories will be judged by local writers and industry experts.
Submissions are open to anyone in the Northern Rivers. Selected finalists will be invited to present stories in a live story-telling performance at the very first ‘Mullum Moth’ hosted by Mandy Nolan and Creative Mullum, on 1 April 2026.
The sooner you get your story in, the sooner we can start selecting stories that will be published.
Each writer is able to submit up to, but no more than two entries.
Submit your short stories to:
www.creativemullum.org.au/short-story-comp
Related articles and published entries:
The Coast Road – short story comp entry
Short story by Edie Foxglove. Lu hates parties. Well, she hated that party, anyway. She dreams of attending big-city parties, far away from these people, this town...
Pages of a Book – short story comp entry
Short story by Pearl Bannister. I read a book once; it was a book about a man, he was lonesome and lost. I read half the book before turning the light off at a quarter to one...
Calling young writers for the Echo Short Story Competition!
Telling stories is how we make meaning. It is a kind of social glue – a way we understand and experience the perspectives of another.
On your mark, get set, write!
The Echo and Creative Mullum’s Short Story Competition is off to a great start with submissions so far in both the over and under 18-year-old categories.
