WARM Writers Competition

Thanks to everyone who entered the 2010 WARM Writers Competition and congratulations to the winners, announced at the Presentation Dinner on 17 June 2010.

Pictured: The 2010 WARM Writers Competition winners present at the Awards Dinner (back row from left) John McMaster (Montville), Bryan Ward (Buderim), Madalyn Bayliss (Pelican Waters), (front row from left) Julian Gordillo (Glenview), Peter Nolan (Mt Coolum) and Chiara Guidotti (Twin Waters).

 

 

 

Click in the winner's details to view entry.  More winning entries to be uploaded soon.

The 2010 winners are: 

Category 1:  Open short story - maximum 2500 words

1st:   Bryan Ward - “Come to Bristol”

2nd:  Peter Nolan - “Penny Dreadful”

Highly commended:           

• Peta Miller - “The Lie”
• BP Marshall - “The Late Express”
• Brian Gram - “A Degree of Guilt”
• Peter Smith - “Lost and Found”

Readers Choice:  Morgana McLeod  - “Recoil”
 

Category 2:  Open poem – maximum 40 lines

1st:   John McMaster - “2am”          

2nd:  Bryan Ward - “The Hydra’s Teeth”         

Highly commended:

• Suzanne Strong - “Breath”
• Bryan Ward - “The Sound of your Blood”
• John McMaster - “Young Lovers”                                  
  

Readers Choice: John McMaster  - “Pacific Prologue”
 

Category 3: Young adult short story (Grades 8-12) - maximum 1500 words

1st:    Madalyn Bayliss - “Listen”

2nd:   Jack Burnham - “In the Line of Fire”

Highly commended:

• Tahlia Baumann - “Dare”
• Madalyn Bayliss - “Choose Your Fate”
• Miranda Rew-Duffy - “As Per Gus’ Syndrome”
  

Readers Choice:  Madalyn Bayliss - “Listen”
 

Category 4: Junior short story (Grades 5-7) – maximum 1500 words

1st:    Chiara Guidotti - “Ingane Indloru”

2nd:   Isabelle Blackstone - “Mythika”

Highly commended:

• Lucy Connolly - “Finding Utopia”

Readers choice: Julian Gordillo - “Drone XL41”           

 

Check out some of last year's winners:

Open Short Story Competition Winner 2009 - Oil Spill - By John Saint-Smith

Open Short Story Competition Second Place Winner - Lessons -By Stephen Reilly

Open Short Story Competition - Judges Comments - By Bronwyn Cozens

 

Open Poem Competition Winner 2009 - The Heart of Australia - By Susan Roberts

Open Poem Competition Second Place Winner - How Swift is Time - By Bernard Paul

 

Junior Short Story Winner 2009 - A Day in the Life - By Natasha Cain

Junior Short Story second place winner - The Spartan: Brothers by Blood, Warriors by Fate, Heroes by Death - by Michael Jefferies

 

Hints for submitting your entry next year:

Bronwyn Cozens, one of last year's judges, offers the following hints for submitting your entry into the Writers Competition:

• Follow the given guidelines exactly.
• Create strong characters.
• Find something new to say, or a new way of saying something old.
• Show the characters acting and reacting; avoid 'telling' the story.
• As far as possible, use the same language as you do in everyday speech - avoid unfamiliar or formal language.
• Watch your punctuation - it carries almost as much of the meaning as the words!
• Relax and enjoy your writing; and remember, it is not a matter of impressing the world, or even other writers, with your talent; IT IS ALL ABOUT PLEASING THE READER.