Power of Words Writing Competition

First Place 

The Return of Mouse Braveheart by Francoise Thornton-Smith

Second Place

Affinity by Suzi Mezei

Third Place

365 by Danica Stevens

Runners Up

That Sea of Stars by Kate Pozzobon

Weather Management by Georgie Waters

Judges Report

Return of Mouse Braveheart by Francoise Thornton-Smith

This piece is our winner because it is a wonderful piece that deals with complex themes compassionately and uniquely. We noticed it had nice descriptive language and a beautiful braiding of the story of Mouse Braveheart. We thought it was a unique take on the prompt and had a great narrative structure that kept us compelled throughout the story.

Affinity by Suzi Mezei

This piece came in close second and was very touching and beautifully written. We thought there was excellent character development, use of conflict and overall narrative structure. We found the ending to be incredibly beautiful and a nice addition to a compelling plot.

365 by Danica Stevens

This piece came in third because we found it original and shocking to be told this story through the eyes of the murderer. We felt it had a good pace and clever development of the plot. We enjoyed the inclusions of flashbacks and memories to keep us engaged in the story.

That Sea of Stars by Kate Pozzobon

This piece was beautifully written and captured a youthful tone well. We loved the development of the relationship between mother and child and the descriptions of the house. We felt the ending was really sweet and memorable.

Weather Management by Georgie Waters

This was a highly original and inventive piece. We enjoyed the metaphor of mental illness though weather and jackets. We felt the meditation on clothing and rain was very clever and that the piece employed great use of descriptions of setting. 

General Remarks

This year we saw many original, beautifully written pieces. With so many different takes on each image prompt, we very much enjoyed seeing the diverse plots. We were looking for works that showcased original plots, character development and a clear narrative structure. We had many works score closely, but our winner was a stand-out piece celebrating a triumph over fear and had us enthralled from the beginning. We would like to congratulate all entrants, even those that did not place, as writing a story and submitting it to a competition is a wonderful achievement. 

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This year, entrants are asked to write to one of a selection of photographs of Latrobe City. View the photos at the bottom of the page. Take a creative look at Latrobe City and make your prose sing.

• Entries must be fiction, submitted in Arial or Times Roman font size 11, double-spaced, printed on one side of the paper only. Story length must not exceed 2000 words. Enter online or download an entry form. 
• Complete the entry form and attach it to your story. Do not put your name on the story. Entrants must be aged over 18 years.
• Email your entry to libraryevents@latrobe. vic.gov.au, with the subject header ‘Power of Words’ no later than 5pm (AEST) on Friday 26 August 2022.
• No hand-written entries will be permitted. Entries must not have been published previously and/or have been used to win prizes in any other competitions.
• Our judges will be looking for stories that show originality and imagination, promote Latrobe City and are well structured.
• One prize of $500 will be awarded to the winning story. Certificates will be awarded to highly commended stories. Winning or awarded stories may be posted on the Latrobe City Libraries website and printed in an anthology to be published at a later date. The successful entries will be announced at a presentation in late 2022 at a venue and on a date to be confirmed. Only the entrants who have submitted winning or awarded stories will be contacted.
• The judges’ decision is final. Please understand we cannot provide feedback to individual entrants.

There is one prize of $500 for the winning story. Runners-up certificates will be awarded. The winning and selected stories will be published in an anthology to be printed by Reader’s Emporium book shop in Traralgon. Copies of the anthology will be available for purchase at the shop and at Latrobe City Libraries.

The Winners

Congratulations to all those who entered, and particularly to the winners. 

First Prize:

• Eight Chimneys by Celeste Brittain 

Read more about Celeste 

Runner Up:

• Luck Filled Platypus by Gary Garside

Read more about Gary

Runner Up:

• Mahogany by Emma Bamford

Read more about Emma

Judges Report

This year’s competition launched at the Latrobe Literary Festival in May and closed in August. It did not attract enough entries to be able to award the full prize, and some of the stories did not meet the criteria of being fictional, rather than travel writing or memoirs. However, the entries that did fit the criteria were generally well-written and used the backdrop of Latrobe City in memorable and creative ways.

Judges were looking for entries that used the local setting intuitively, and that had well drawn characters, a developed plot and a clear structure. Points were also awarded for creativity and imagination. The three winning stories shared these attributes and the scores were very close. However, there was a clear winner, and that top-placed story was well written using a strong understanding of the craft of short story writing to entice the reader into the heart of the story.

Well done to all the entrants. Even if your story did not place, you still managed to put your thoughts down on paper and enter the competition. That is a win in itself.

Congratulations to our winner and runners-up. Here are the judges’ comments, author bios and winning entries.