The CALEB Award from Omega Writers is a Christian Writers Award. It recognises the best in Australasian Christian writing, published and unpublished, giving Christian writers an opportunity to be celebrated for their commitment to their craft.
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.
Supports excellence in Australasian Christian writing by encouraging and educating writers, regardless of genre.
Encourages excellence in Australasian books by recognising and rewarding our best writers writing from a Christian worldview.
Entry fees for the CALEB Award are $70. Current Omega Writers members receive a $30 discount. Members can find their discount entry code here in the Members page of this website. There is no fee to nominate for the Barnabas Award.
The Published Awards run in even years with the expectation of announcements at the biennial Omega Writers conference. Entries for the 2024 Published awards will open 1 April 2024.
Depending on the year, the Published awards may be open to the following genres:
In 2024 the Published Award is open to:
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.
The Unpublished Awards run in odd years with the expectation of announcements around October in the non-conference year. The next Unpublished Award will take place in 2025.
The Unpublished awards are open to the following genres:
(up to three awards given biennially)
(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.
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.
Previous winners of CALEB will be listed here soon. Please check back.
Entries for the Published CALEB Awards will be open from 1 April to 1 May 2024.