May 2, 2024

We are delighted to announce the distinguished panel of judges who will oversee the judging process for the inaugural Portside Review Human Rights Essay Prize. Meet the judges who will play a pivotal role in selecting the winning essay:

John Ryan, Frances An, and Sampurna Chattarji each bring a wealth of expertise and a commitment to promoting writing excellence and human rights values.

John Ryan is published internationally as an author specialising in education, social justice and cultural literacy. John’s research subjects have included LGBTIQ+ social justice in global culture shaped by Enlightenment ideas and processes; education and Modernity as reflected in Australian Literature; genre studies; and, Creative writing and the ficto-critical voice.  From 2012-2015 he was a branch president of the New South Wales English Teachers Association. From 2011-2019 he was Head Teacher of English in NSW Secondary Education specialising in Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies. In 2018, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Australian and Transnational Studies at the University of Barcelona.  From 2021-2023, John was a judge for the Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli Fellowship at the Centre for Stories in Perth.

Frances An is a writer with interests in the history and philosophy of marketing psychology, moral self-perception and intellectual life under Communism. Her research explores the individual motivations, social norms and industrial structures that sustain the practice of ‘curbstoning’ (data falsification in market research). She writes regularly for ‘Cha: An Asian Literary Journal’ and has reviewed multiple books on Maoist Chinese culture. In 2019, her thesis investigated the link between utilitarian vs. deontological frameworks and peoples’ tendencies to hold exaggerated perceptions of moral self-righteousness. She has been active in PEN International since 2021. 

Sampurna Chattarji is a poet, fiction writer, editor, teacher, and translator. Her twenty books include the short story collection about Bombay, Dirty Love (Penguin: 2013) and two novels Rupture and Land of the Well (HarperCollins: 2009, 2012). Latest among her ten poetry titles are the collaborative work Over and Underground in Mumbai & Paris (Context: 2018); and Space Gulliver: Chronicles of an Alien (HarperCollins: 2020). Her translation of Joy Goswami’s prose poems After Death Comes Water (HarperCollins: 2021) has been called “inventive and vivid as the English of Joyce”; and Wordygurdyboom! – her translation of Sukumar Ray’s poetry and prose – is a Puffin Classic. 

The Portside Review Human Rights Essay Prize is made possible through the generous support of Centre for Stories’ Founder’s Circle and esteemed donors Baden Offord, Christopher MacFarlane, and John Ryan. This international prize celebrates writing excellence and invites submissions that explore themes of social justice and human rights.

The winning essay will receive a prize of AUD $5,000 and a round trip to Perth, Western Australia, to lecture on the essay’s theme and/or conduct workshops in the latter half of 2024. Additionally, a selection of ten shortlisted essays will be published in a special edition of Portside Review in 2024.

Submissions for the essay prize are currently open and will close on May 15, 2024, at 11.59pm Australian Western Standard Time (GMT +8). Stay tuned for the announcement of the shortlist in June 2024.

For more information and to submit your essay, please visit the Portside Review website.