SparkLit

21/08/2026

Matt Dodd and Thom Bransdon’s project “God’s Very Special Letters: The Epistles for Kids. Volumes 1-3; Philippians, Colossians & Philemon, 1 Peter” is the 2026 Australian Christian Book of the Year.

This is what the judges had to say:
“Four New Testament letters have been brought to life for readers of all ages. This new translation uses direct and plain language and is a joy to read. The text is complemented by illustrations that advance the narrative, remind us of the culture and fortunes of the original readers, and ensure that people remain the focus of complex theological ideas. This unprecedented and wonderful initiative makes these epistles accessible to children and offers older readers a fresh encounter with familiar and favourite parts of Scripture. Why hasn’t this been done before?”

Read the judges’ comments for all shortlisted and winning works here: https://sparklit.org/awards/

Photo: Translator Matt Dodd and illustrator Thom Bransdon with SparkLit National Director Michael Collie. Photo by Sybil Gazzard.

21/08/2026

Hanna Pheh (Mount Waverley, Victoria) wins First Prize in the 2026 Australian Christian Teen Writer Award for her story “The Unintended Race”. Congratulations, Hanna.

Read this excerpt from her novel “The Unintended Race”.

Just hours ago at dinner, Pearl and her siblings had worried that Pa wouldn’t make it.

Ma, however, hadn’t dismissed them yet. She still had something to say. And she seemed to struggle to say the words.

Finally, she simply said, “Spending will have to be cut down. The hospital fees aren’t too large, since the hospital is government-run, but the daily expenses are a lot, and Pa isn’t working.”

The truth was out. But Pearl wasn’t particularly affected by it. It didn’t matter if their family didn’t have enough money for luxuries. Anything that was necessary was enough.

As they left the bedroom, Pearl’s eyes rested on the ancestral altar, and she instantly looked away. She remembered that Pa had been planning to go to the temple in Ipoh when the accident had occurred.

So! He’d been stopped. Stopped dramatically. It was strange. Was it a
coincidence? The temple and the accident? Together!

Somehow Pearl knew that Pa had been stopped from going to the temple.

~
Read the judges’ comments for all winning works on our website: https://sparklit.org/actwa/

Contact us at [email protected] if you would like to read the unpublished manuscripts in full.

21/08/2026

Aoife Martin (Brunswick West, Victoria) wins Second Prize in the 2026 Australian Christian Teen Writer Award for her story “Neither Height nor Depth”.

Read an excerpt from “Neither Height nor Depth”.

“Oh Phoebe, we thought that you’d been mugged, or worse,”

“The woman hastily wrapped her arms around me before muttering, “We’re so glad you’re okay. There’s someone here to see you. He sounds important and wants you to do something for him. He wanted to wait for you to get back before explaining more. He’s in the dining room … when you’re ready.”

My eyebrows furrowed. I wasn’t totally surprised. Being a deacon, many people came to ask me to heal sick children, or seek favours or financial assistance, most of which I did, but someone of importance wasn’t usually good news.

I slipped out of my sandals, shrugged off my overcoat, and walked through the rooms. I saw some of my brothers and sisters in Christ congregating in a circle,

talking in hushed tones, but there were two people who I didn’t immediately recognise: a bald, squat man and a tall man with thinning brown hair.

Someone in the circle met my gaze, and with wide, alert eyes informed the mystery guests that I had arrived. The bald man calmly nodded, and spun around, presenting me with a face I knew well and an assertive character that turned and shook heads wherever he went.

The corners of my mouth turned up, and my tense shoulders relaxed. It was only Paul.

~
Read the judges’ comments for all winning works on our website: https://sparklit.org/actwa/

Contact us at [email protected] if you would like to read the manuscripts in full.

21/08/2026

Steffan Sween (Chirnside Park, Victoria) wins Third Prize in the 2026 Australian Christian Teen Writer Award for his story “The Night Watch”.

Read an excerpt from “The Night Watch”.

Apart from the boat’s dreadful rocking, the stench on board was beyond anything I experienced in London.

On my left I saw a fella reading a book with faded pages bound in leather.

“Trying to sleep?” I joked.

“Can’t sleep with seasickness. I wanna read a chapter or two before cap’n comes down and threat’ns us to sleep.” He had a strong eastern cockney accent.

“I own … er got a similar looking book … well, kind of own.” I hesitated before deciding to take the book out of my satchel and show it to him. “You want it? It’s useless to me. Can’t make head or tails of it.”

“Why, it’s no ‘ifferent at all!” His blue eyes lit up. He turned my copy to the same page he was on and read slowly, “‘By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.’ What’s your name lad?”

“Alfie.”

“You ever ’eard about Jesus, Alfie?”

~
Read the judges’ comments for all winning works on our website: https://sparklit.org/actwa/

Contact us at [email protected] if you would like to read the manuscripts in full.

21/08/2026

GOD’S VERY SPECIAL LETTERS: THE EPISTLES FOR KIDS, VOLUMES 1-3: PHILIPPIANS, COLOSSIANS & PHILEMON, 1 PETER, translated by Matt Dodd and illustrated by Thom Bransdon, is the 2026 Australian Christian Book of the Year.

Read an extract from 1 PETER: GOD’S VERY SPECIAL LETTERS. THE EPISTLES FOR KIDS.

“Following King Jesus is hard. Peter knew that the moment he left his fishing boat behind. These children knew it too. But God had a wonderful plan for their lives, and Peter wanted them to stand strong in it, no matter how hard it gets.

God wants you to stand strong in his wonderful plan too.

So let’s go travelling with Silvanus now.
Let’s open up Peter’s first letter …

This letter is from Peter, a messenger of our King, Christ Jesus.

I am writing to God’s chosen people, who are like travellers living far from their true home in the regions of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

You were chosen by the plan of God our Father and made special to him, made holy through the Spirit, so that you could obey him and have a relationship with him through the forgiveness that the blood of Christ Jesus gives us.

May he give you more and more kindness and peace.

Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Because of his huge mercy, he has brought us into a new life with a hope that is alive because Jesus Christ was raised to life from the dead.

God will now share everything he has with us—treasures that cannot break, rot, or fade away, which are being kept safe in the heavens for you.

And you are being protected by God’s power.

He is using your trust in him, your faith, to protect you until the time when he will rescue you. That rescue is ready and will be revealed on the final day.”

https://www.theopenword.com.au/buy

19/08/2026

“Sheridan concludes optimistically that our world may be tough for us, but not a hundredth as difficult as that faced by the early Christians. “Who would have thought they could change the world? They did it mostly one person at a time. They never compromised on the Jesus-centred genius of their new and revolutionary faith. They met the world with kindness in manner, but uncompromising integrity of belief.””

Rowan Callick of The Melbourne Anglican reviews HOW CHRISTIANS CAN SUCCEED TODAY by Greg Sheridan. https://tma.melbourneanglican.org.au/2025/11/sheridan-explores-christians-in-a-world-that-exiles-religion/

Register for the SparkLit Awards Night tomorrow! https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1607116

~🏆~

2026 Australian Christian Book of the Year Shortlist
How Christians Can Succeed Today
Reclaiming the Genius of the Early Church
Greg Sheridan
Allen & Unwin
https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Greg-Sheridan-How-Christians-Can-Succeed-Today-9781761471124

Greg Sheridans new book is How Christians Can Succeed Today: Reclaiming the Genius of the Early Church.

18/08/2026

Joel Wentz reviews LEVITICUS ON THE BUTCHER’S BLOCK by Phil Bray. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkseg22HajA

🎫 Meet Phil Bray at the SparkLit Awards Night this week! Register here: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1607116

~🔪~

2026 Australian Christian Book of the Year Shortlist
Leviticus on the Butcher’s Block
Making Head or Tail of the Bible’s Toughest Book
Phil Bray
Resource Publications
https://wipfandstock.com/9798385240333/leviticus-on-the-butchers-block/

Follow me on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1611394...

17/08/2026

“Adriel Booker’s Tethered to Hope deals with the in-between-ness of the crisis after the crisis, gently and deftly.”

Matthew Tan reviews TETHERED TO HOPE by Adriel Booker.
https://www.awkwardasiantheologian.com/blog/2026/8/14/thethered-to-hope

🎫 Meet Adriel Booker at the SparkLit Awards Night this Thursday! Register here: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1607116

~🌤️~

2026 Australian Christian Book of the Year Shortlist
Tethered to Hope
The Quiet Kindness of God in Crisis, Change, and the Spaces in Between
Adriel Booker
Baker Books
https://bakerpublishinggroup.com/products/9780801075827_tethered-to-hope

Regular readers might remember a post from some years back concerning the subject of liminality, which reflected on that “threshold” space situated betwixt life and death as depicted by Lorenzo Monaco’s rendition of the Man of Sorrows painting. In that psot, I mentioned how this image sends an...

16/08/2026

“As Parkinson states, this book “is about how we live as good citizens of our countries but with an allegiance to another King—a King whose demands must, in certain situations, take precedence over the requirements of the law”. Christians genuinely belong to earthly nations and should seek to be good citizens within them, but their deepest loyalty is to Christ, whose kingdom relativises every earthly authority.

Unshaken Allegiance provides something many Christians need right now. It provides wisdom on how to live faithfully, while resisting both blind submission and reactionary panic.”

Martin Robinson of The Gospel Coalition Australia reviews UNSHAKEN ALLEGIANCE by Patrick Parkinson. https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/book-review/faithfulness-when-freedoms-diminish/

🎫 Meet Patrick Parkinson at the SparkLit Awards Night this Thursday. Register here: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1607116

~⚓~

2026 Australian Christian Book of the Year Shortlist
Unshaken Allegiance
Living Wisely as Christians with Diminishing Religious Freedoms
Patrick Parkinson
Matthias Media
https://matthiasmedia.com.au/products/unshaken-allegiance?srsltid=AfmBOor1ZEweGMXTPaTmib6beMEgGoXTXNgplbGMtZvxfs7rY1glvAGZ

Unshaken Allegiance is clear, calm, and practically useful. Even if one ends up qualifying part of Parkinson’s broader framing, the book succeeds in providing something many Christians need right now. It provides wisdom on how to live faithfully, while resisting both blind submission and reactiona...

15/08/2026

“The irony of the good Christian girl is that it’s not an achievable title for anyone. It’s a photo-shopped, air-brushed, perfectionistic view of Christianity that promotes self-righteousness and enslaves us to human-made rules.”

Read Polly Jane Butterworth’s story behind writing her book, THE MYTHICAL LIFE OF THE GOOD CHRISTIAN GIRL. https://growingfaith.com.au/articles/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-good-christian-girl

~👧~

2026 Australian Christian Book of the Year Shortlist
The Mythical Life of the Good Christian Girl
Realising True Freedom in Christ
Polly Jane Butterworth
Youthworks Media
https://youthworksmedia.net/products/the-mythical-life-of-the-good-christian-girl?srsltid=AfmBOoo9mN5bkKOPamj7xOeH3EeJ_mE0Hvqzc3d3_9DVkYtBqxh7Pd4o

Introducing a brand-new book from school chaplain Polly Jane Butterworth.