Call for judges in the 2024 CALEB Award
The CALEB Award from Omega Writers recognises the best in Australasian Christian writing each year. The awards are an opportunity to celebrate excellence within our Christian writing community. We invite you to help us celebrate the talent within our community by volunteering to be a judge of the 2024 Award.
Entries will open on 1 April and instructions for writers wanting to enter will be available shortly on the Omega Writers website.
Why be a judge?
There are so many reasons! If you are a writer, it helps you interact with some of the best Australian Christian writing from the past two years. If you are an aspiring author, it can help you learn about your genre. If you are a reader, it can help you discover new Australian books. Being a judge is an opportunity to elevate the great work of others in the Christian writing community
You don’t have to be a writer to be a judge!
Anyone who enjoys reading Christian books (not just writers) can volunteer to be a judge. You don’t need specialist writing knowledge, just a bit of time to read and give your feedback on the entries. Books (except picture books) are entered electronically, so you can read them on your e-reader or computer.
First-round judges need to read and judge the first 10,000 words (of between 4 and 10 entries) between 1 May and 18 June 2024. Final-round judges will read and judge 3 or 4 whole books (up to 120,000 words each) between 1 July and 20 August 2024.
If you are entering the CALEB Award you can still be a judge in a category that you have not entered. Volunteer to be a judge here.
Are all entries Christian?
The CALEB Award recognises and celebrates excellence among Christians who write. This may include the writing of books for the Christian market or for the general market. As such, judges can expect the writing they read and judge to be consistent with Christian worldviews and values, even if they do not contain overt Christian content.
This year the award is for books published in 2022 and 2023 in the following categories:
- Published Adult Fiction
- Published Young Adult Fiction
- Published Middle Grade and Early Reader
- Published Picture Books
- Published Adult and Young Adult Nonfiction (excluding Devotionals)
Entries for the 2024 Award will open on 1 April 2024. Winners will be announced at the gala dinner as part of the 2024 Omega Writers Conference in September.
Click here to volunteer to be a judge of the 2024 CALEB Award.
