“UWRF FUELLED ME CREATIVELY IN ENTIRELY NEW WAYS”: AAWP X UWRF EMERGING WRITERS’ PRIZE WINNER SOPHIE OVERETT
From over 100 submissions for the Australian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP) x UWRF18 Emerging Writers’ Prize, Sophie Overett’s Sea Wife was the winning entry. Sophie won a ticket to UWRF18, accommodation, and $500 towards airfares. She also received a one-year annual AAWP membership and fully subsidized fees to attend its annual conference where she read from her winning work. AAWP and UWRF have teamed up again in 2019 to present the Emerging Writers’ Prize. We spoke to Sophie about her UWRF and AAWP experience.
AAWP/ASSF EMERGING WRITERS’ PRIZE 2018
It is our very great pleasure to announce the winner of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs / Australian Short Story Festival Emerging Writers’ Prize. The winner is Margaret Hickey for ‘Fowler’s Bay’. AAWP/ASSF are proud to support emerging writers in offering this opportunity for emerging writers.
Highly commended entries (in alphabetical order) include:
‘A Name Like For Ever’ by Suzanne Hermanoczki
‘Between You and the Stars’ by Nicole Janov
‘Cat’s Kiss’ by Alison Thompson
‘Pass Muster’ by Deb Wain
AAWP/ASSF would like to thank all authors who submitted to the prize. The judges were overwhelmed by the quality and diversity of entries. This made the judging process very challenging.
AAWP/ASSF would like to acknowledge the generosity of our fine judges. Heartfelt thanks.
Judges’ appraisal:
Margaret Hickey’s ‘Fowler’s Bay’ is a quietly humorous story about poverty, hardship and loss. A story about a woman who was returned to her childhood bay to find that although much has changed she still can’t breathe there because of all the ‘sand blowing down my gullet’. In few words Hickey paints the picture of a life that has floundered, a woman who has lost plenty but who is still ready for life to take new turns. ‘Fowler’s Bay’ is a sad but life-affirming story that stood out in this year’s batch of fine stories.
About Margaret Hickey:
Marg Hickey is a playwright and author living in North East Victoria. Her plays are published with Playlab and have been performed in Melbourne (La Mama), Brisbane, New York and regional Victoria. Marg’s short stories have been shortlisted and won prizes in many awards. This year, her short story Binky won first prize in the Victorian Writers Grace Marion Award and second in the state. She has been published in many newspapers and literary journals including Meanjin.
This year, Marg submitted her PhD on depictions of landscape in contemporary Australian literature. When Marg isn’t writing, she teaches Theatre Studies at a local high school. She lives in the North East with her husband and three sons in a small house surrounded by gums.
AAWP/UWRF EMERGING WRITERS’ PRIZE 2018
It is our very great pleasure to announce the winner of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs / Ubud Writers and Readers Festival Emerging Writers’ Prize. The winner is Sophie Overett for ‘Sea Wife’.
Highly commended entries (in alphabetical order) include:
‘Forty Seven’ by Elizabeth Cummings
‘Feral Street’ by Susan Francis
‘Scales’ by Keely Jobe
‘Ruby’ by Saman Shad
AAWP/UWRF would like to thank all authors who submitted to the prize. The judges were overwhelmed by the nuanced responses to the theme and the quality and diversity of entries. We are proud to support emerging writers in offering this opportunity for emerging writers.
AAWP/UWRF would like to acknowledge the generosity of our fine judges. Heartfelt thanks.
Judges’ appraisal:
In ‘The Sea Wife’, Sophie Overett turns her attention to myth in order to explore the tragedy of love in a world that inevitably destroys. Suffused with exquisite aquatic imagery that reflects the currents in the main protagonist’s own moods, this richly layered story charts the interplay of life and death, memory and murder, feeling and language. It is an intense and hauntingly atmospheric story.