Welcome to Australia's most unique team writing competition
The annual Write a Book in a Day competition gives participants the chance to collaborate and flex their creativity, as well as compete for tons of prizes, and help make a difference to the lives of kids with cancer.
Teams of between 5 and 10 participants choose any day between 1 May and 30 September to write and illustrate an entire book. Each team will be given unique parameters for their story for their chosen writing day, ensuring that no one gets a head start!
Teams are encouraged to fundraise during the competition, with entry fees and all money raised going directly to The Kids’ Cancer Project to support vital childhood cancer research. Every book submitted will also be made available for free to kids in hospitals around Australia.
Of course, it’s a competition first and foremost! All books submitted will be judged by our talented team of judges, and there are prizes on offer throughout the competition. Winners of the ‘Best Overall Book’ and ‘Best Illustrations’ prizes will be chosen from each state as well as nationally at the end of the competition.
It’s wonderful to witness students working and creating together while raising money for an amazing cause.
Write A Book In A Day has been successfully running annually since 2002, during which time it has continued to grow and break fundraising records year on year. Take a look below to see an overview of the history of the competition…
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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
Another wonderful year of competition, over 1,565 books written and $780,000 raised for childhood cancer research. We explored lots of new ideas, one standout was with Toowoomba Lighthouse hosting a special writing day and special guest Catriona Rowntree!
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2023
What a year! A big thank you to Barker College and Inner Sydney High School for allowing us behind the scenes of their writing days for our promo video, as seen on the homepage. We finished the competition with our biggest year yet, a huge fundraising effort of $903,310.
