We live in an ever-evolving world, and this year the Aurealis Awards have some changes occuring to help us stay abreast of things and able to continue to deliver Australia’s premier speculative fiction awards.

Firstly, we have new overlords! In 2025, the Aurealis Awards are heading back to Brisbane, under the auspices of the Queensland Writers Centre. We are delighted to be back in the sunshine state, and look forward to working with the QWC team to bring you the Awards for the next several years.

Secondly, as part of our Rules, we have a statement on the use of generative artificial intelligence.

The use of generative artificial intelligence tools during any part of the judging process is not permitted.

Works that have been created with the use of generative artificial intelligence are strictly forbidden from entry in the Aurealis Awards. This includes written and illustrative content.

In addition, as per the Australian Society of Authors’ statement on generative artificial intelligence, the Aurealis Awards agrees that all use of a creator’s work should be authorised, compensated and acknowledged, and that:

AI-generated products should be labelled as such. It is essential for educational, research and cultural institutions – as well as consumers – to be able to easily identify AI-generated works and AI developers and users must be required to declare when a work is wholly or partially AI-generated.

Finally, in an effort to ensure panels have sufficient time during the entry period to give due consideration to all entries, from 2025 the entry fee (applicable to all long-form work, including novels, graphic novels, anthologies and collections) will be scaled.

Works published between January 1 2025 and September 30 2025 must be entered by September 30 2025 to avoid the entry fee increase applied from October 1 2025. Works published in October, November and December will not be subject to the entry fee increase.

1. Entry forms submitted for long form works (novels, graphic novels, collections and anthologies) between July 2025 and September 30 2025 will incur a $10 entry fee, regardless of 2025 publication month.
2. Entry forms for long form works first published during October, November and December 2025 and entered any time during the entry period to November 30 2025 (final entry date) will incur a $10 entry fee.
3. Entry forms submitted for long form works between October 1 2025 and November 30 2025 (final entry date) but published prior to October 1 2025 will incur a $20 entry fee.

Essentially, works published January-September 2025 but not entered until October/November 2025 will incur the higher fee. This is not intended as a punitive measure but is essential to maintain timelines for receipt and judging of entries, and is in line with measures taken by some other national awards such as the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year awards.

Entries for the 2025 Aurealis Awards will open soon – keep an eye on our socials and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date!