Write a Book in a Day is a fun, creative challenge that sees budding writers and illustrators create a book in just one day! Perfect for helping unlock creativity, the competition encourages literacy, teamwork and resilience.
It couldn’t be easier to get involved, from 1 May you can register your budding writers and choose a writing date between 1 June and 30 September. Eligible books will be shortlisted and submitted to our judging panel who will decide the winners of our book awards and prizes! And the incredible part is, digital editions of the completed stoires are made available on the Online Library and shared with hospitals across Australia.
Funds raised through sponsorship go to The Kids’ Cancer Project, a national charity supporting childhood cancer research.
For more information about the competition, read the manual or register to enter now.
Take a look at how the competition started and the difference your support has made over the years
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2002
Write a Book in a Day begins as a partnership between Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre and Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth. Chris Oakeley from the Centre and a few volunteers run the competition and 18 teams raise money for the hospital.
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2009
79 teams enter the competition, they are based in just two Australian states, Western Australia and New South Wales.
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2014
The competition attracts 452 teams, 150 of them from schools. Over $100,000 is raised for children's hospitals in every Australian state and territory.
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2015
Chris and his team seek out a national charity to take over running the competition. The Kids’ Cancer Project are appointed. Entries grow to 529 teams comprising over 4,500 young and adult writers.
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2016
Over $157,000 is raised for vital childhood cancer research through the participation of 630 teams including 187 schools.
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2017
A new website for the competition is launched and 790 teams Write a Book in a Day raising over $190,000 for research to help children with many different types of cancer.
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2018
1032 teams participate in the competition, raising over $247,000 for childhood cancer research.
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2019
Sponsorship pages are launched to help writers with their fundraising efforts. A record 1132 teams participate in the competition and raise over $475,000.
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2020
A year like no other, some teams participate ‘virtually’ if not able to compete ‘in-person’. The first virtual Award Ceremony is held (view it here) and a record $537,000 is raised for childhood cancer research.
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2021
A record-breaking year, the 2021 competition raised over $595,000 for childhood cancer research, thanks to 8,307 writers from 1,252 teams from every state and territory.
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2022
The biggest year on record, over 11,000 writers and $792,000 raised for The Kids' Cancer Project! Congratulations to all participants and a huge thanks to Team Coordinators, Sponsors, Readers and Judges.
