Established in 2013 as a new program of support for young writers, funded by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and administered by Express Media

Young writers, publishers and digital experts were encouraged to pitch an idea to Express Media that demonstrated innovation in the field of literature and publication

In 2013, the Innovation Prize was awarded to Dan Golding, who formed Press Select—a small press that published e-books about videogames where writers were guided through the editing and publishing process.

In 2014, the prize was awarded to Betanarratives - a website of interactive digital storytelling that combines the written word, sound, visual art, colour, animation and HTML to find “new ways of telling old stories.”