Congratulations to winners of the GEELONG WRITERS PRIZE 2023!

First Place – Lindsay Smelt for his story ‘The Grace of Father Brown’

Second Place – Jo Curtain for her personal essay ‘Still Life: finding myself again after a traumatic death’.

Third Place – C S Lee for his story ‘How I Won the Lottery’.

Commended – ‘Alphabet Soup’ by Alex Creece and ‘Splinter’ by Samantha-Ellen Bound.

About our winners:

Lindsay Smelt

Lindsay writes short stories, essays, biography and has the odd stab at poetry. His main writing project is a biography of the nineteenth century Australian bush poet Adam Lindsay Gordon (forthcoming). His shorter non-fiction work covers sport and culture, with several pieces published on The Footy Almanac website. He is a member of a local Ocean Grove writers group.

Lindsay is a graduate of the University of Melbourne, with degrees in Arts, Economics and French. He is also a graduate of the Australian Writers’ Centre. In his day job, he is employed by the Victorian Government as a renewable energy policy analyst.

Lindsay lives at Barwon Heads, on Wadawurrung Country, with his wife Sarah, their two beautiful girls and a naughty Labrador named Lando. To connect with Lindsay or read examples of his work visit www.lindsaysmelt.com or @lsmelt on Twitter.

 

Jo Curtain

Jo is a poet, short story writer and mix-media artist. She is the editor of Anomaly Street: poetry with a difference, a biannual publication. Jo’s work often centres around the personal narrative drawing on love, grief, and trauma. She hopes her writing connects with people in meaningful and liberating ways. Jo is interested in the interaction of text and visual elements. She explores writing and art as a space of experimentation where she can disrupt and playfully challenge the boundaries and conventions of form, materials, and mediums. Jo is an award-winning writer in 2021 and 2022. Her writing and visual work have been published in Geelong Writers General Anthology (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022), Swim Meet Lit Mag, The Lovers Literary Journal, Coffee House Writers and Short Stories Unlimited.

 

C S Lee

Like everyone, C S Lee has an unusual family: a father abandoned by his mother; a grandmother disowned for marrying a Chinaman; a great-grandmother disowned for marrying a pauper; and a mother who dreamed of university but was forced to leave school at fifteen. Like every writer, C S Lee writes for many reasons but mostly to make sense of the madness.

 

Alex Creece

Alex Creece is a writer, poet, collage artist, and average kook living on Wadawurrung land. Alex works as the Online Editor for Archer Magazine and the Production Editor for Cordite Poetry Review. She’s also on the editorial committee for Sunder Journal. Alex was awarded a Write-ability Fellowship in 2019 and a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship in 2020. A sample of Alex’s work was Highly Commended in the 2019 Next Chapter Scheme, and she was shortlisted for the 2021 Kat Muscat Fellowship. In 2022, Alex was shortlisted for the inaugural Born Writers Award and the Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Award. Alex’s debut poetry collection is forthcoming with Cordite Books.

 

Samantha-Ellen Bound

Samantha-Ellen Bound is a writer, children’s author, and podcast host. Apart from writing, she has many years’ experience working with books and publishing—as a bookseller, reviewer, editor, in production and marketing, and for literary programs in educational institutions. She hosts and produces KidLit Classics— a podcast that celebrates classic children’s literature, the Australian kidlit community and the books that were pivotal to them and their careers.

Sam-Ellen has been published in literary journals and shortlisted for numerous short story awards. She was also shortlisted for the Vogel Prize in 2018 and been a recipient of a May Gibbs Creative Time Fellowship.

Her junior fiction books include the best-selling series Silver Shoes, and her middle grade novels include the modern fable What the Raven Saw and her current epic fantasy series Seven Wherewithal Way, inspired by world folklore and portal fantasies. Her books have won and been shortlisted for awards such as CBCA Book of the Year (Younger Readers), the Aurealis Award, and the QBD Book of the Year.

 

You can read an article about the winning entry, The Grace of Father Brown and author, Lindsay Smelt, in the Geelong Independent.

SHORTLIST

We are delighted to announce the shortlist (listed A-Z by title):

  • ‘Alphabet Soup’ by Alex Creece
  • ‘An Unquiet House’ by Kat Skarbek
  • ‘Conversations and confessions turning the gaze inside out’ by Jo Curtain
  • ‘Echidna’ by Sue Gourlay
  • ‘How I won the lottery’ by C S Lee
  • ‘Mentioned in Dispatches’ by Adrian Brooks
  • ‘Rocketman’ by Martin Smith
  • ‘Splinter’ by Samantha-Ellen Bound
  • ‘Still Life: finding myself again after a traumatic death’ by Jo Curtain
  • ‘The Grace of Father Brown’ by Lindsay Smelt

 

LONGLIST

  • ‘A strange and different paradigm’ by Catherine Bell
  • ‘Alphabet Soup’ by Alex Creece
  • ‘An Unquiet House’ by Kat Skarbek
  • ‘Caught Between Worlds’ by Julie Rysdale
  • ‘Conversations and confessions turning the gaze inside out’ by Jo Curtain
  • ‘Echidna’ by Sue Gourlay
  • ‘Funeral Crashing’ by Cherie Gilmour
  • ‘Gods Seest Thou’ by Chris McCormack
  • ‘How I won the lottery’ by C S Lee
  • ‘Mentioned in Dispatches’ by Adrian Brooks
  • ‘Rocketman’ by Martin Smith
  • ‘Ruins’ by Kym Tyzack
  • ‘Splinter’ by Samantha-Ellen Bound
  • ‘Still Life: finding myself again after a traumatic death’ by Jo Curtain
  • ‘The Grace of Father Brown’ by Lindsay Smelt
  • ‘The Homecoming’ by Jane Tosh
  • ‘The Passing of Paddywhack’ by Philomena Horsley
  • ‘Two Yarns’ by Gail Griffin
  • ‘Unforgotten, Blue’ by Michael Cains
  • ‘Untethered’ by Constance Jane Smith

 

 

 

ENTRIES CLOSED

The Geelong Writers Prize is open to writers who live, work or study in the City of Greater Geelong, Borough of Queenscliffe, Surf Coast, Colac-Otway or Golden Plains shires.

The competition is for prose fiction and creative nonfiction works between 2,000 and 3,000 words.

First prize: $2,000
Second prize: $500
Third prize: $250

Entry fee: $10 per story
We have kept the entry fee low to make the competition accessible to writers of limited financial means. If you can afford to pay more, consider making a donation. Big or small, every donation will help us fund this competition and continue the work we do, supporting writers and promoting writing and literature in the Geelong, Surf Coast, Golden Plains and Colac-Otway regions.

Winners will be announced in May 2023 and shortlisted works will be published in an anthology and on the Geelong Writers website.

COMPETITION GUIDELINES

  1. The competition is open to writers who live, work or study in the City of Greater Geelong, Borough of Queenscliffe, Surf Coast, Colac-Otway or Golden Plains shires
  2. The competition is also open to members of Geelong Writers, wherever they live
  3. Entries must be a minimum of 2,000 words to a maximum of 3,000 words, excluding the title
  4. All works must have a title
  5. Entry fees are $10 per story
  6. Entrants may submit up to three works, each at the specified entry fee
  7. Entries must be received, and entry fees paid, by midnight on 14 March 2023
  8. All entries must be in English, double-spaced, and use 12 point Times New Roman font
  9. Entrant’s name must not appear anywhere on the work as the pieces will be blind judged
  10. Stories must be the original work of the entrant and must not have been published (personal blog and social media posts excepted ) or been awarded a prize in any competition
  11. Simultaneous submissions are permitted; however, the writer must notify us if a story is accepted for publication or is longlisted or shortlisted in another competition
  12. Fees will not be refunded
  13. No corrections will be accepted, nor any correspondence entered into
  14. Authors retain copyright of their work
  15. The judge’s decision is final
  16. Any member of the committee of management of Geelong Writers involved in the pre-reading process prior to the final judging shall be precluded from entering
  17. In entering this competition
    • You give permission for your work, should it be shortlisted, to be published in full or part on Geelong Writers website, and/or in any Geelong Writers publications
    • You declare that the work submitted is your own original work
    • You acknowledge that failure to abide by any of the stated rules may make your entry, or entries, ineligible.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Pay the entry fee
    • Online at Trybooking – https://www.trybooking.com/CEPON (Please note that a booking fee of 50 cents applies to each entry)
    • Alternatively, you may pay by EFT
      • Account Name: Geelong Writers Inc. BSB: 063-551, Account Number: 1015-7327
      • Reference: GWPrize[Surname]2023 e.g., GWPrizeSmith2023
      • Email your payment receipt to geelongwriters@gmail.com.
  1. Email your story to geelongwriters@gmail.com
    • Save your story as a PDF file, and attach it to your email
    • Include ‘Geelong Writers Prize’ in the email subject field
    • Include the title of the work, the word count, your full name, address, phone number and the email address you would like us to use for correspondence, in the body of your email
    • Include your payment receipt if you have paid by EFT.

ENQUIRIES

Please direct any enquiries to the Competitions Coordinator at geelongwriters@gmail.com
Competition website: www.geelongwriters.org.au/competitions/

IMAGE: Driveway Mantis by Pauline Jane Butler