Young Tasmanian Writers' Prize 2024
The Young Tasmanian Writers’ Prize is a short fiction competition open to Tasmanians enrolled in Years 7-12 at schools that are current members of TATE and home-schooled students.
Sponsored by Forty South Publishing, with the generous support of the Tasmanian Association for the Teaching of English (TATE).
Prizes: Winner of each section receives $300; Two runners up of each section receive a $30 Fullers Bookshop gift voucher; Peter Sharp Memorial Award (awarded in the Junior section): Winner receives $100; The Jane Franklin Hall Prose Award (awarded in the Senior Section): $200
Winning stories will be posted online in the Young Tasmania section of fortysouth.com.au
Winners' schools each receive a one-year subscription to Forty South Tasmania print magazine.
YOUNG TASMANIAN WRITERS’ PRIZE 2024
RESULTS
SENIOR SECTION – Judge, Kate Gordon
WINNER
Samuel Castle, The Friends School | Hinsby
Judge’s comments: “An exceptionally written piece. Beautiful turns of phrase and stunning imagery. The word choices really made the work sing and the writer had a keen sense of when to write poetically and when to pare back. I was very moved as I read and would love to read more from this talented writer.”
RUNNERS-UP
Stella Wesseldine, The Friends School | Hiraeth
Judge’s comments: “A tense, taut, stunningly written piece. There were some really, really beautiful lines that would have made a seasoned writer envious! I loved “I cherish those moments now, as fragile as glass. I wrap them in my heart and remember when he was soft.” So much said, so simply. It takes huge talent and restraint to write like this.”
Ashlyn Vernon, Elizabeth College | It comes with age
Judge’s comments: “This story is so simple and there is a remove to the prose that somehow works to make it more affecting. The writer knows how to tug at heartstrings without leaning into the twee or saccharine, or anything that feels manipulative. I defy anyone who reads this to not go and hug their favourite bear - and give their grandparent a call.”
COMMENDED
Hal Cormack, St Mary’s College | In unity we find our destiny
Ruby Williams, Rosny College | Missing a song
Judge’s comments: “Two quite different pieces, featuring history and the fantastic, but both with an eye to the experience of women. Both showed a depth of work, craft and care and I will be excited to see what these talented writers do next.”
JANE FRANKLIN HALL PROSE AWARD – Judge, Lucy Christopher
WINNER
Stella Wesseldine, The Friends School | Hiraeth
Judge’s comments: “This piece has a rich emotional intensity and close-in and believable first-person perspective. I appreciated the play on the Welsh word 'Hiraeth'; there was indeed a sense of deep longing and homesickness throughout the piece. Best of all, I was gripped from beginning to end!”
JUNIOR SECTION - Judge, Johanna Bell
WINNER
Amaya Yee, St Mary’s College | Fever Dreams
Judge’s comments: "This story plunged the reader into a liminal world marked by febrile visions and humour. With its condensed, claustrophobic tone and eerie imagery, Fever Dreams stood out for its strangeness and whirring motion, propelling the reader into an increasingly bizarre evening."
RUNNERS-UP
Magnus Stewart, Launceston Church Grammar | Mutton Bird
Ava Mignanelli, Fahan School | The shallow water waits
Judge’s comments: “Both these stories, with Australian gothic undertones, succeeded in creating an unnerving pull while pointing to a dark past and the ghosts of unfinished business. In Mutton Bird, the protagonist faces off with avian spirits and the injustices enacted on the Island's First Peoples. In The Shallow Water Waits, the narrator avoids the lure of the shallows, slowly revealing a family's turgid history with a local body of water."
COMMENDED
Chanel Charles, Launceston Church Grammar | 400 metres
Jordan Chugg, Prospect High School | Ship song
Judge’s comments: "These stories stood out for their strong use of language and both succeeded in building a convincing world where the main character overcame a nuanced challenge."
PETER SHARP MEMORIAL AWARD – Judge, Penny Lane
Magnus Stewart, Launceston Church Grammar | Mutton Bird
Judge’s comments: "I am awarding the 2024 Peter Sharp Award to Mutton Bird, an original story that flows smoothly and is successful in evoking the location Vansittart Island and what happened there to the narrator. It is a great, engrossing read. I am particularly impressed with the historical and cultural references and how they are built into the story. There is some over-writing, particularly at the end of the first paragraph. I suggest the writer think about using fewer and more subtle adjectives."
JUDGES
Senior Section: Kate Gordon
Kate Gordon grew up in a small town by the sea in Tasmania. She is the author of numerous award-winning picture-books and novels for younger readers, including Aster’s Good, Right Things, published by Yellow Brick Books in November, 2020, which won the CBCA Book of the Year for younger readers in 2021, and was shortlisted in the Tasmanian Literary Awards in 2022. The companion novels, Xavier in the Meantime and Indigo in the Storm were published in 2021 and 2023. Whalesong was published by Yellow Brick Books in 2022, following Kate’s residency at the Maritime Museum of Tasmania. Kate continues to write novels and picture books from a cottage overlooking the river and the mountain on the Eastern Shore of Hobart. She has two daughters, an elderly cat and a very silly labradoodle.
Junior Section: Johanna Bell
Johanna is based in nipaluna (Hobart), where her creative practice spans poetry, picture books, podcasts and audio installations. She's most interested in picture books and writing that challenges the established rules of storytelling and her work has been recognised with awards including the CBCA Picture Book of the Year (2017), the Northern Territory Literary Award (2016 / 2018 / 2019), the Australian Podcast of the Year (2020) and a shortlisting for the Prime Minister's Literary Award (2020). When she's not writing, she spends a lot of time in the bush, watching birds.
The Jane Franklin Hall Prose Award (Senior Section): Lucy Christopher
Lucy is a multi-award-winning and bestselling writer for young adults, children, and adults. Her work is psychological and emotional, often inspired by wild places. Her novels for young adults are Stolen, Flyaway, The Killing Woods, The Darkness and Storm-wake, published in over twenty countries, and her picture books are Shadow and The Queen on Our Corner. Her first novel for adults, Release, has been recently published. Lucy has won many international awards including the Branford Boase, Printz Honor Award, Golden Inky, and the Prix Farniente. She was shortlisted for the Costa Award, Waterstones Prize, Australian Prime Minister’s Awards, and longlisted for the Carnegie Medal. She has a MA and PhD in Creative Writing, and is an experienced speaker at conferences and festivals. Previously, she was Reader in Creative Writing and Course Director at Bath Spa University. She is now Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing for the University of Tasmania, and a Jane Franklin Hall Fellow.
Peter Sharp Memorial Award (Junior Section): Penny Lane
After a teaching career in Hobart, Canberra and Sydney, during which she wrote two books about teaching, Penny Lane turned to writing short stories and more recently poetry, and has won several awards for both stories and poems. She was a finalist in the 2017 Newcastle Poetry Prize, and most recently won first and third prizes in the free verse section of the 2019-20 Sutherland Shire Literary Competition. She has published a Kindle e-book, Winning Writing: What Works For Me, about her short story writing.
Shortlist Selection: Tracy Lampkin
Tracy Lampkin holds degrees in Arts and Business. She has a particular passion for languages, etymology and the formalities of good writing. Tracy has worked across a range of private industries throughout Australia and in the United States. She reads across a very eclectic range of subjects and is a devoted bibliophile. She despises hanging participles.
