sharing the adventure of visual arts
EAST GIPPSLAND ART GALLERY
NEWS
The winner of the $1000 prize for The East Gippsland Shire Council, Hal Porter Short Story competition for 2019 is Jodie Kewley (Vic) for her story titled Laid Bare. Read winning entry here
Jodie has been writing part-time since the early 90s. She has authored two novels and co-edited a non-fiction book, but writing short stories is what she enjoys most. Her stories have won a number of awards and have been published in a wide range of journals and anthologies. Based on the Mornington Peninsula, Jodie has worked as a social worker, journalist, gardener, cook and potter’s assistant. She and her partner run a small business, ‘The Red Hill Muesli Company’, which is conveniently based on their property.
The judges chose the winning story for the professionalism of its prose. The story taps a common experience: the rearing of children of drug affected people by the grandparent. The death of the grandmother allows the child to reflect on this life from the child’s perspective. The story comes alive through the skilled use of dialogue which reveals the story’s climax in a very impressive way.
Short listed stories …
The anonymous entries were read by one judge and shortlisted to 10 stories. Next the other two judges shortlisted to their top three. Discussion then took place.
The shortlist from 109 entries:
My Sister’s Presence by Pamela Baker
Eulogy example: search ALL by Melanie Napthine
These writers receive book prizes donated by the University of Queensland Press. The judges congratulate and encourage the winner and shortlisted writers.
- Peter Millard – Competition organiser
Download previous years winning stories:
​
2018 Rob Johnson
A beautifully told story about the love between a father and his son, symbolised in the planting of a tree. The boy’s enraged reaction to his father’s death is to cut down the tree. The father is reflective and philosophical. The story goes into a second generation that mirrors the first. This is beautiful, clear writing with a gentleness that is profoundly moving.
​
2017 Simon Rowe
The judges chose the winning story for the professionalism of its prose. The story was clear, simple and direct. Told from a boy’s point of view, this story of migration showed the stresses that moving into the unknown hold for probably all migrants.
​
Tonight's the night I'm going to shine
RJ Tennyson is a writer of short stories (and unfinished novels) who has been writing for pleasure since 2015. He is based south of Melbourne, on the sunny Mornington Peninsula, where he lives with his wife, daughter, two dogs, and a pair of crazy cats. He considers himself a ‘social justice junkie’ and it’s from this space that he draws inspiration for his writing. When time permits, he co-authors the blog FlashFictionFanatics with a fellow writer and friend.
​
Mr and Mrs Hopper, Room Eighteen.
Amanda Wilson is a daytime Librarian and an evening wordsmith. She likes reading old erotic fiction and wandering her Spotswood neighbourhood at dawn, when the industrial rail yards look like sleepy river towns.
​
2014 Kerrin O'Sullivan Post-Partum
Kerrin is a Melbourne-based writer with a love of words and faraway places. She finds inspiration in, and is more than slightly in awe of, the intricacies of language, its nuance and mystery. Her published writings include short fiction and creative non-fiction and have appeared in various journals and anthologies including Southerly, Kill Your Darlings, the Victorian Writer, Write Now and Aesthetica
​
2013 Claire Aman Love me tender
Claire says she has always been a daydreamer and always liked reading. She hasn’t studied creative writing. She wrote a novel once. It wasn’t published but it taught her how to write. She loves writing short stories. She likes sifting through the lazy subconscious, pushing preoccupations around and coming up with things she didn’t know she knew.
MEMBERSHIP
2 Nicholson Street
Bairnsdale Victoria 3875
+61 03 5153 1988
info@eastgippslandartgallery.org.au
Gallery hours:
Tuesday–Friday 10am–4pm
Saturday 10am–2pm
Sunday-Monday CLOSED
FREE Admission