Christian Writers Award Australia
The CALEB Award
The CALEB Award is a Christian writers award run by Omega Writers. It supports excellence by recognising and rewarding great Christian-worldview writing, regardless of genre.
The Unpublished competition runs in odd years.
The Published competition runs in even years.
Omega Writers also awards a Barnabas Award, recognising writers who go out of their way to support and encourage others in their writing journey.
The 2025 CALEB Award for unpublished manuscripts will open in April.
The story behind the CALEB Award
Originators of the CALEB Award designed it to celebrate Australian Christian writers for their commitment to their craft.
CALEB stands for Christian Authors Lifting Each other’s Books. In the Biblical book of Joshua, Caleb was one of two spies to go into the land of Israel and bring back a good report. Caleb said that the Israelites would have success because God was with them, even though there were giants ahead of them.
As Christian writers in the Australasian region, we can often feel dwarfed by the apparent ‘giants’ of international publishing. However, God is still with us in our writing, and we can press on with courage and encouragement in him.
The aim of the CALEB Award is to provide a Writers Award for Christian Writers in Australia New Zealand and the south Pacific, and to encourage and promote Christian writers who are courageously writing and publishing books from a Christian worldview.
Fast facts about the CALEB Award
The both unpublished and published awards are open to writers of both fiction and non-fiction. However, categories may change from year to year, depending on the number of entries.
- The award is open to members and non-members. The Omega Writers President and CALEB Award Coordinator are not eligible to enter.
- The Barnabas Award is chosen on the merit of nominations received by the CALEB Committee.
- The CALEB Awards are run by volunteer members of Omega Writers. Our coordinators and judges are volunteers. We welcome Christian readers and writers from Australia, New Zealand and the south Pacific to contribute as judges.
- Competitors may judge in the same year that they enter, but they are prohibited from judging in the same category as their own entries.
- Current Omega Writers members receive a significant discount on the entry fee. Members can find their discount entry code on the Members page of this website. There is no fee to nominate for the Barnabas Award.
Unpublished Awards
The Unpublished Awards run in odd years with the expectation of announcements around October in the non-conference year. The next Unpublished Award will take place in 2025.
The Unpublished awards are open to the following genres:
- Young Adult fiction
- General fiction (the award may be divided into specific genres if there is a sufficient number of entries in each genre e.g. romance, fantasy)
- General non-fiction (the award may be divided into specific genres if there is a sufficient number of entries in each genre e.g. memoir/biography, devotional, other)
Published Awards
The Published sections of the CALEB Award are our opportunity to recognise excellence in writing by Christian authors, and celebrate the books they have published. The next Published award will run in 2026, for books published in 2024 and 2025.
The Published Awards run in even years with the expectation of announcements at the biennial Omega Writers conference.
Depending on the year, the Published awards may be open to the following genres:
- Picture books
- Children’s fiction (early reader to middle grade)
- Young Adult fiction
- General fiction (the award may be divided into specific genres if there is a sufficient number of entries in each genre e.g. romance, fantasy)
- General memoir/biography
- General non-fiction (excluding memoir/biography).
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A Special Category may be included in the awards from time to time. This would include poetry, gift books, short stories and/or other non-traditional formats.
In 2024 the Published Award was open to:
- Published Adult Fiction
- Published Young Adult Fiction
- Published Middle Grade and Early Reader
- Published Picture Books
- Published Adult and Young Adult Nonfiction (excluding Devotionals)
Chosen categories are subject to receiving a minimum of seven entries in each category and sufficient volunteers to judge. We reserve the right to change or cancel categories based on entries and the availability of volunteer judges.
Entries for all categories except children’s picture books will be electronic only. This makes it easier and cheaper for us to manage the contest (as we’re not posting books to judges). It also makes the contest less expensive for entrants, as they don’t have to provide hard copies of their books. Entrants will provide a PDF or EPUB file, which will be forwarded to judges.
Prizes will be announced at a Gala dinner at the Omega Writers Conference in 2024.
Barnabas Awards
The Barnabas Awards are our opportunity to encourage writers on their writing journey.
There are two streams of the Barnabas Award:
Encouragement Awards
(up to three awards given biennially)
The Barnabas Award
(one biennial recipient)
Encouragement Awards are opportunities to celebrate emerging writers who Omega Members believe are worthy of encouragement and recognition for their commitment, attitude and development of their writing craft.
The Barnabas Award recognises writers who give selflessly to support and encourage other writers in the writing journey. This award celebrates the invaluable impact of such encouragement and acknowledges the often unseen work these writers do to lift others up.
Announcement of winner will occur at the
same time as the CALEB Unpublished Award.
If you’re a current paid member of Omega
Writers, we would like to invite you to nominate a fellow Christian writer for an Encouragement or Barnabas Award.
Writers eligible for nomination for the Barnabas Awards are:
- Christian writers currently living in Australia, New Zealand, or the South Pacific.
- Can be published or unpublished writers in any genre.
- Do not need to be members of Omega Writers.
- Any writer can be nominated, however the CALEB Organising committee and Omega Writers president are excluded from being able to win.
To nominate a writer for one of these awards you must:
- Be a paid Omega Writers Member
- Email CALEB @ omegawriters dot com dot au with the following:
Your name and email address
The name and email/website address of the author you’d like to nominate (so we can contact them if they win).
The Award you are nominating that writer for: Encouragement Award or Barnabas Award
Up to 200 words explaining why you believe this writer should receive this prize.
Nominations are open in July 2025.
