Monday musings on Australian literature: Young Writers Awards

March 5, 2018March 5, 2018 / Whispering Gums / 12 Comments

Yesterday’s post on young writer Ben Smith Noble’s prize-winning short story, “The sands of time” inspired today’s post. I’ve written about several prizes over the years – the big ones, and the more targeted ones – but not prizes for Young Writers. It’s a tricky topic to write about. There’s the definition of “young” and there’s the fact that there are many “small” prizes offered (that is offered within small spheres like a school or other contained group). My focus here is to pick out some of the bigger – more encompassing – prizes, and also to show some of the variety in the prizes being offered.

These prizes range from those offered for a piece of work submitted for competition to awards for published writing. The more adult young writers prizes (if that makes sense) define young writers as those under 35 or 30 years of age, while other prizes can be offered for age ranges. I’ll list a selection of awards, in alphabetical order.

Per Capita Young Writers’ Prize

I nearly didn’t include this prize because their website is so minimal. It says, for example, to “Click below to see winning entries from this year and previous years” but I could see nothing “below” to click on. However, it’s an intriguing award that’s been going for a few years, it seems, so I decided to include it. It is for Australians aged 25 years and under, and is “designed to encourage young people to think about the major public policy challenges facing Australia.” Weighty matter! The judging criteria includes, as well as the more usual ones of originality and writing quality, “the potential public benefit of the ideas put forward.” In 2014 the winner received $3,000 plus some sort of international travel. You can read a 2017 prize-winner on the writer Michael Dello-Iacovo’s website.

Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers (Nonfiction)

Established in 2013, this prize is seen as a development award aimed at fostering “talented writers aged 30 and under writing longform work.” Writer submit entries of between 5,000 and 10,000 words “across all nonfiction genres, including memoir, journalism, essay, and creative nonfiction.” The winner receives cash ($3000 in 2017), mentorship and some Scribe books. Shortlisted writers receive some Scribe books, but also feedback on their entry and the opportunity to attend a masterclass. Pretty good eh? The prize makes their aim of fostering talent real.

SLQ Young Writers Award (Short Story)

An annual short story award, around 20 years old, for Queensland writers aged between 15 and 25. Prizes are offered in two age categories: aged 18 – 25 (short stories up to 2,500 words); aged 15 – 17 (short stories up to 1,500 words). In each of these, there is one winner and one runner-up, and four highly commended entries. Past winners include Benjamin Law, Tara June Winch and Romy Ash. You can read all the past winning, runner-up and highly commended stories online.

Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists (Fiction)

Established in 1997 by former literary editor Susan Wyndham, this award which aims to recognise “emerging talent” is made to writers who were 35 years or under when their book was published. It’s become a well-regarded award and is quite a feather in a writer’s cap to be called a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist. More than one writer is named each year. An example is Emily Maguire who won the award in 2010 (Smoke in the room) and 2013 (Fishing for tigers). She went on in 2017 to be shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Ned Kelly Award for An isolated incident (my review). You can see a list of the winners over the first 20 years, 1997 to 2016, online.

John Marsden & Hachette Australia Prize for Young Writers (Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry)

Named for and supported by one of Australia’s most successful writers for youth, John Marsden, this prize is “an annual developmental award open exclusively to Australian secondary school students.” This award is made in three categories: fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Winners receive cash ($500 in 2017), a selection of Hachette YA books, publication of their work on the Express Media website and their names printed in the youth literary journal Voiceworks. You can read the winning 2017 works online.

Young Tasmanian Writers’ Prize

Run jointly by Forty South Publishing and the Tasmanian Association for Teachers of English, this is a literary competition for Tasmanian high school students, in two age categories, Senior Section (Years 10 to 12) and Junior Section (Years 7 to 9). They do, it appears, provide a theme/themes, as this entry form for 2018 shows. The winners in the two sections receive $300 and their story published in Tasmania 40° South, and the runners-up receive a $30 bookshop voucher. This is the one, as you’ve probably realised, won by Ben Noble Smith.

Young Writers’ Award (Picture Book and Short Story)

As far as I can tell this is a brand new award which started in 2017 and for which the first winner will be announced this week. It’s been established by the Redgum Book Club and is geared to children aged between 9 and 13 years of age, to “develop their writing skills and find their unique voice through storytelling.” They want it to be an accessible activity that can be incorporated into a school’s writing program, so they provide a Teacher’s Toolbox on their site. There are two categories: picture book (up to 250 words plus illustrations) and short story (800 to 1000 words). Winners will receive a $250 Redgum book voucher, and the shortlisted writers a $150 voucher.

And there are many more awards – including other state-based awards and at least one for indigenous youth. For information about these and others, please visit a wonderful post by teacher and writer Melinda Tognini on her blog Treefall Writing.

I had no idea there was this variety around. I’d love to know if you have had any experience of young writers’ awards or know of any not listed here? (If you are not Australian please share any you know of from your country.)

Ben Smith Noble, The sands of time (#Review)

March 4, 2018March 5, 2018 / Whispering Gums / 13 Comments

Ben Smith Noble is the second young writer I have reviewed here, the first being Leah A with her 10 silly poems by a ten year old (my review) which came to my attention via Son Gums. Ben Smith Noble’s short story “The sands of time”, on the other hand, came to me from Mother Gums via Brother Gums who lives in Tasmania and knows the young writer. Indeed, I believe I’ve met him too, but that was nearly ten years ago, when he was probably around 6!

Many moons have passed since then and it appears that Ben Smith Noble is becoming quite the writer. “The sands of time”, which unfortunately is not available on-line, won the Junior Section (Years 7-9) of the 2015 Young Tasmanian Writers Prize – and what a delightful story it is. It’s a time-travel story about a man who dies suddenly and mysteriously finds himself in a coffin that had been used in England in 1122, during the time of the Crusades. What happens next, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, is that he finds himself in the Holy Land in 1098 “standing between two armies that had a very certain view on who was right”:

The hot sands swirled around Mr Smith as the two armies gave a roar and started moving towards each other at a speed that suggested the sides shared an intense hatred for each other, and further suggested to the out-of-place Tasmanian the idea of being impaled on a lance or scimitar.

He dearly wished he was somewhere else. Heaven for example.

In the next paragraph, things are getting dangerous: “An arrow drifted by in what seemed slow motion, and hit a nice young man who would probably have got along well with his killer had his killer not been holding a bow”.

Mr Smith is not impressed, and starts to run:

He wasn’t sure where he was going, but he was sure anywhere would be better than here.

However, he soon finds an English knight and a Saracen warrior approaching him on horseback from different directions, so he does the only sensible thing he can think of. He calls, “Stop!” The denouement, from this point, is beautifully and succinctly told, and conveys a message about war – something that “happens when people with small brains get big ideas” – that is pure and sensible. It’s an entertaining read.

What is impressive about the story is Noble’s grasp of language, of rhythm and pace, of voice, and of structuring a plot. We are told in the first paragraph that Mr Smith had “a guilty love of Doctor Who” which sets up the time-travel idea, but we are also told in the same paragraph that he likes “staying in the here and now”, and hadn’t, in fact, been anywhere further than Burnie. In other words, he’s a simple, ordinary man, and Noble sets this up effectively in the first paragraph. He also establishes his light tone in this paragraph, and sustains it through to the end. The story made me laugh – at the right times – and yet it has a serious message that’s relevant today. I don’t have a benchmark for what young writers are capable of these days, but this story would not embarrass its creator in adult company.

A search of the Tasmania 40° South revealed that Ben Smith Noble won the Senior Section (Years 10-12) prize last year, with a story titled “Napoleon, or, the musings of Mr Pink”. Clearly someone to watch. You heard it here first, folks!

Ben Smith Noble
“The sands of time”
in Tasmania 40° South, Issue 78?, pp. 85-86

Leah A, Ten silly poems by a ten year old (Review)

October 8, 2016March 2, 2018 / Whispering Gums / 22 Comments

PREFACE AND DISCLOSURE: As some of you know Son Gums is a primary school teacher. One of the programs he likes to run with his class is “the Passion Project”. Part of the theory behind this project is that kids don’t always get to do in class the things that really interest them so, over one 10-week term in the school-year, each student chooses a project s/he is passionate about to work on. Some time is allocated in class each week, and the rest is done at home. At the end of term, the students present what they’ve produced or created, which I understand can (and has) included games, computer programs, websites, artworks, live or animated films/videos, novels and cookbooks. This year, one girl wrote, illustrated and then published on Amazon a book of ten poems. I have bought and read the book and been given permission to write about it here.

NOW, THE FUN PART, THE BOOK: I titled my brief Amazon comment/review, “Edward Lear watch out”, because this gorgeous little (in size, not value) book reveals a lively, cheeky mind just like, I imagine, Edward Lear’s was. And like Edward Lear, Leah (hmm, I didn’t notice that homophone until now) is both writer and illustrator. Her ten silly poems are written in a variety of styles, including Lear’s favourite, the limerick.

The first two poems are not limericks, however, but 8-line rhyming couplets about her parents. They reminded me of when our children (one being, of course, Leah’s teacher) were growing up and showing an interest in writing. I decided then that I needed to let go of my ego and be prepared for my less endearing qualities to be revealed to all. Leah’s parents have clearly realised they must do the same, if they are to encourage her talent. Mum gets away with it this time, but Dad doesn’t come out quite so well:

You’re very handsome and oh so cool
Even though you sleep and drool.
(from “Dad”)

Lucky Mum eh?

Several of the poems are about animals and their adventures, usually involving food. “Lightning”, with its nicely controlled a-b-c-b rhyme, tells of the secret behind this horse’s speed (“All his speed and fastness/Was due to eating sauerkraut”)! Isaac the dog, on the other hand, finds that he needs to be a little careful about what he decides to “bite, bite, bite”. Like many of the poems, “Isaac” also uses the a-b-c-b rhyming pattern, but here Leah changes the form a little by ending most of the stanzas with the refrain “bite, bite, bite”. This use of a refrain comprising repeated words enhances the poem’s mood of silliness, but Leah also has the confidence to break the pattern in the middle of the poem, before taking it up again, to provide a needed change of pace. She’s not afraid, in other words, to mix it up a bit.

Most of the poems are narrative, and tell humorous little stories, as you’d expect of the nonsense verse tradition within which Leah is writing. “Carolina Reaper”, for example, tells of a birthday girl who ignores the advice of a Mexican restaurant waiter, to her detriment, while the two delightful “Turbo Turtle” poems play with the commonly held assumption that turtles are slow.

Turbo Turtle, Turbo Turtle
How fast can you go?
Compared to me a cheetah
Is oh so very slow.
(from “Turbo Turtle”)

Occasionally the rhythm falters, but this is offset by the sure sense of story, the cheeky sense of humour, a clever use of language, not to mention the delightful illustrations. And anyhow, what can you expect when you have to write, illustrate and publish a book in ten weeks! Ten silly poems by a ten year old is not only an entertaining read but an impressive achievement. If you have a mind to support young authors, and you have a Kindle (or the Kindle app on your tablet), you might like to buy a copy for yourself at the Amazon link below. At AUD1.31, it’s a steal.

A, Leah
(Illus. by Leah A)
Ten silly poems by a ten year old
2016
26pp.
ASIN: B01LY4LZ1J