In this the fourth year of the award, twenty-eight
entries were received, slightly down on last year’s total. But if the quantity
was less than last year, the quality certainly wasn’t. This year the overall standard
of the writing was much higher than in previous ones. There was a tail, but it
was a very short one. The overall calibre of the writing was excellent and the
best of the stories were a tribute to the entrants’ abilities.
Writing a publishable story when the limit is just
1500 words is a serious challenge. As with all fiction, characterisation is
crucial. Credible characters must be established and placed in interesting
circumstances. Elements of conflict must be present, to add dramatic tension to
these circumstances, and eventually the conflict must be resolved in a manner
which is satisfying to the reader. As I said, quite a challenge. But the
finalists all rose to it successfully.
While the high standard of the entries was
gratifying, it also made my job much more difficult. Choosing the list of
finalists, let alone the winners, was extremely hard. I read and re-read the
short list – which was in fact quite a long list – over and over again. Then I
set them aside and allowed the very best of the stories to rise to the surface
of my consciousness. In this way the very best stories selected themselves. But
it was still a very difficult process, and as a consequence I divided the list of
finalists into three categories: Highly Commended, Very Highly Commended, and
the Top Three.
HIGHLY
COMMENDED ENTRIES
The Immigrant by Mee-mee Phipps
A Bad Business by Julie Ryan
Flying to St Petersburg in Your Pyjamas by Michael
Morrissey
Animal
Husbandry by Linley Jones
VERY
HIGHLY COMMENDED
In no particular order, these are:
Red
Bucket by Alex Stone
This story reads like a combination of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Lloyd Jones’s Mr Pip. Intriguingly exotic, the plot
lends itself to an extended version i.e. It could well be expanded into a
novel.
Mind Mapping by Linley Jones
A story which spans decades in time, and worlds in
place, yet succeeds in drawing the sympathy of the reader towards a woman not
quite able to shake off her past.
Clickety
Clack by Eileen Merriman
Original and impressively scary, this is a story of
obsession, rejection and revenge. Its medical class setting is convincing and
its ending suitably horrifying.
THIRD
PLACE
A story whose disturbing pivotal incident has had repercussions
which reverberate down the ensuing years. The writer takes us back and forth in
time, interweaving important events in not-too-distant Australian history, with
the participation of some of the characters involved and their subsequent lives.
One for animal lovers, too.
ALL
THINGS BRIGHT by Bernard Brown
SECOND
PLACE
An arresting opening sentence sets the scene for
what becomes a subtly drawn account of a secret relationship between two
adolescent boys and the subterfuges they adopt to maintain it. A very moving
story which manages to show, as well as tell, a great deal about its two
protagonists’ lives.
YELLOW
by Eileen Merriman
FIRST
PLACE
Hypnotic descriptions of the Southern Ocean and the
Antarctic constitute the physical background to this story. The underlying
theme is one of attempted escape and a yearning for personal fulfilment, aims
which are ultimately defeated. Yet at the same time the woman narrator is made
aware, by the ice which surrounds her, and the banal reactions of others to it,
of the importance of what she has left behind. A finely conceived and executed
story and a very worthy winner.
ENDLESS
SEA by Bronwyn Calder
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