The Age Short Story Award is a competition that is run in conjunction with International PEN

International PEN

PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....

, the international writers' association. It was established in 1979. From 1979 to 1984 it was run in conjunction with Tabloid Story and was known as The Age-Tabloid Story Awards. The inaugural award was won by Harris Smart.

Entries must be unpublished, and under 3000 words. Three prizes are awarded and the winning stories are published in The Age

The Age

The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...

 and online.

Note: There is often confusion in reporting the awards as the award is sometimes announced around December and sometimes around January. Consequently, some sources give the year as the year the competition closed, and some as the year the award was announced. This may account for any apparent discrepancies in the list given below. There is no official listing from The Age to clarify the situation.

Winners

Year	1st Prize	2nd Prize	3rd Prize
1979	by Harris Smart
1983	by Connie Gregory
1987	"Tennis with My Father" by Richard Lunn	"Purring Our Way to the Tropics" by Tony Lintermans	"Like the Tail of a Comet'" by Jane Hyde
1988	"The Wage Earner" by Lin Van Hek Lin Van Hek Lin Van Hek is an Australian writer, member of the Society of Women Writers and is the co-founder of a literary-music group called Difficult Women.Van Hek was born in Melbourne but lived in Europe and India for some years...	"Little Electric Wheelchair" by Michael Stephens	"Thanks for the Currawongs" by Max Painter
1989	"What Would Sasha Say" by Tony Lintermans	"Where the Wild Geese Go" by Joan Birchall	"Blue Milk" by Gillian Mears Gillian Mears Gillian Mears is an Australian short story writer, and novelist.Her books, Ride a Cock Horse, and The Grass Sister won a Commonwealth Writers' Prize, shortlist, in 1989, and 1996. The Mint Lawn won The Australian/Vogel Award....
1990	"The Road Up and the Road Down" by Margaret Betts	"Hidden Glass" by Sydney Smith	"Cat in Deep Water" by Josephine Barnes
1991	"Aunt Jessica and the Ostrich-tamer" by Stephanie Green; co-winner, by Margaret Betts	"Photographs from Beneath the Surface" by Judith Duffy	"Imperial Zoo" by David Astle David Astle David Astle is a Melbourne-based writer of non-fiction, fiction and plays. He also cohosts the SBS show, Letters and Numbers, as the dictionary expert, in company with Richard Morecroft and Lily Serna....
1992	"The Green Light" (Full text) by Danny Calegari Danny Calegari Danny M. C. Calegari is the Richard Merkin Professor of Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology, and is one of the recipients of the 2009 Clay Research Award for his work in geometric topology and geometric group theory....  ; co-winner "The Pleasures of Eczema" by Tony Lintermans		Michael McGirr
1993	"The Mummy's Foot" by Beth Spencer	"Winter in Berlin" by Barry Homewood	"The Wide Circle" by Darren Hill
1994	"The Reasons I Won't Be Coming" by Elliot Perlman Elliot Perlman Elliot Perlman is an Australian author and barrister. He has written two novels and one short story collection.-Life:Perlman is the son of second-generation Jewish Australians of East European descent...	by Norman Bilbrough	by Tim Richards
1995	"Reply to a Letter" by Wayne Macauley	"The King And I" by Raymond Allan	"The Bands on my Teeth" by Michael McGirr
1996	by Sue Martin	by Kevin Brophy	by Jane Watson
1997	"Dumb Things I Gotta Do" by James Hawthorne	"The Vision" by Ruth Learner	"The Letter" by Samantha Hanna
1998	"Sodasi" by Keith Butler Keith Butler (author) Keith Butler is an award winning Indian Australian writer. Born in Delhi in 1948, he began teaching in Calcutta and immigrated to Australia in 1972. He has been published in a variety of Australian publications including Meanjin and The Age. He won The Age Short Story Award in 1998 for his story...	by Michael McGirr	by Margaret Betts
1999	by Michelle de Kretser Michelle de Kretser Michelle de Kretser is an Australian novelist who was born in Sri Lanka but moved to Australia when she was 14.She was educated in Melbourne and Paris, and published her first novel, The Rose Grower in 1999...	by Angus Ibbott	by Katheryn Lomer
2000	by Cate Kennedy Cate Kennedy Cate Kennedy is an author born in Louth, Lincolnshire, England who moved to Australia in her childhood. She graduated from University of Canberra and has also taught at several colleges, including The University of Melbourne...	by Craig Cormick	by Michelle Vlatkovic
2001	by Cate Kennedy Cate Kennedy Cate Kennedy is an author born in Louth, Lincolnshire, England who moved to Australia in her childhood. She graduated from University of Canberra and has also taught at several colleges, including The University of Melbourne...	Warhead' by Emma Ashmere (published under Emma Hartwood)	by Jen Alexander
2002	"Snapshot of Strangers" by Paddy O'Reilly Paddy O'Reilly Paddy O'Reilly is a multiple award-winning Australian writer. She won the Age Short Story Award in 2002 for her story, "Snapshots of a Stranger" and was an Asialink resident to Japan in 1997. Her work has been published in Australia, Europe and the USA...	"Silver Apples" by Andrea Mayes	"The Greatest Thing in all Movies" by Patrick Holland
2003	by Ross Hitchcock	"The Wheelbarrow" by Patrick Cullen
2004	"All Fathers the Father" by Emmett Stinson	"Just a Line" by Ross Gray	"Hotel Sheesh Mahal" by Liz Gallois
2005	"The Reasons for Us Being Here" by Ellen Rodger	"Booligal Sheep Station" by Dennis McIntosh	"The Promise" by Erin Gough
2006	"From the Wreck" by Rob Williams	"Remaking the Image of this World" by Shane Jesse Christmass	"Suckered into a Perfect Line" by Bill Collopy
2007	"A Parachute Landing in Siberia" by Stephen McGrath	"The Feeder" by Glenys Osborne	"The Heron" by Alison Campbell Rate
2008	"Home Visit" by Peggy Frew	"A House Was Built Around You While You Slept" by Glenys Osborne	"Frozen Cigarettes" by Bronwyn Mehan