Established in 1991, these awards aim to honour Banjo Paterson, a great Australian writer and favourite son of the region, with a competition to encourage short story or poetry writing with Australian content.

A major change this year is that entrants will be able to email their entries, as well as post, by the due date of Friday, April 23.

Author Kim Kelly has come on board as the short story judge this year.

Her most recently published book is The Truth & Addy Loest.

"I'm also a book editor and have spent my professional life nurturing and discovering talented writers of all kinds," she said.

"I'm looking forward to being surprised and delighted by the entries - especially those from voices that are a little bit different and have interesting things to say."

ALSO MAKING NEWS:

Orange Mayor Reg Kidd is encouraging everyone to be creative and start writing.

"Entries in any of the categories don't have to be written in the same style as the work of Banjo Paterson. These awards are aimed at promoting Australian writing and writers," Cr Kidd said.

"This is a nationwide competition and entries have been received from right around the country in previous years."

"We expect the judges will kept busy with lots of entries."

There are three categories with generous prizes to be won. Category 1 is for short stories with a maximum word limit of 3,000 words. Category 2 is for contemporary poetry to submit no more than 200 lines. There is a $15 joining fee for both categories 1 and 2, and the winner of each will take home the grand prize of $2,000.

The final category is for the younger generation of writers. Those aged 16 years or younger are asked to submit a short story no longer than 1,000 words or a poem no longer than 30 lines with an entry free of $5 dollars.

The winners will be publicly announced at the Readers and Writers Festival planned for Saturday, July 31 at the Hotel Canobolas. The winning short story, poem and children's entry will be published on the Central West Libraries website.

Entry forms with full Conditions of Entry are available from the Central West Libraries website www.cwl.nsw.gov.au or by phoning 6393 8120.

Entries close on Friday, April 23 at 5pm and can be emailed to: competition@cwl.nsw.go.au accompanied by an entry form.

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