Short Stories & Haiku Writing Competition
Many thanks to all those who have supported our association and to the judges who gave their valuable time to read and assess all the entries. The winners are shown below.
SHORT STORY – Judges Robin, Chantal and Martin had many discussions regarding their chosen stories out of the many worthy entries, but agreed that the following were the prize winners.
1st Prize – Gayle Neighbour – Careful Whisper.
2nd Prize – Gayle Neighbour – Undertow
HC – Gilbert Van Kerckhoven – The Girl who couldn’t sleep.
HAIKU – Judges Rob and Olivia enjoyed the task – so many great entries. They requested three HC awards too.
1st Prize – Julie Andrew
2nd Prize – Bron Morrison
Highly Commended
1 – Louwna Weber
2 – Celia Esplin
3 – Jo Buchanan
Meet our Judges
Haiku Judges
Rob is the former president and current vice-president of the Australian Haiku Society who began his haiku journey in Tokyo in the mid-1990s where he became a member of a local haiku group. His poems have appeared in journals and anthologies worldwide over the past 25 years. Rob has published two major collections and recently co-edited the Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology (2023). In 2015, Rob completed his master’s thesis, ‘The History of Australian Haiku and the Emergence of a Local Accent’, presenting his findings at the World Haiku Conference in Kraków, Poland (2015). Rob lives in Melbourne where he is the convener of the Fringe Myrtles Haiku Group.
Olivia is a prize-winning poet and artist from Melbourne, Australia, who is especially drawn to sumi-e ink painting, haiku and haiga. She was the winner of the Haiku Sanctuary 2020 Kukai as well as the Australian Haiku Society’s Spring Kukai Competition. Her haiga received an honourable mention in the Jane Reichhold Memorial Haiga Competition, and her haiku have been transcribed into braille and added to the State Library of Victoria’s Collection. You can find her most recent haiku in the Australian Haiku Society’s Fourth Anthology, ‘Under the Same Moon,’ a book which she also illustrated
Short Story Judges
Chantal is a High School English teacher of 23 years’ experience. Chantal is a qualified and former Humanities and Global Politics Teacher, inclusive education support worker, (previous)judge of the Noosa Arts and Crafts Writing Competition and amateur blogger. She can’t wait to read your entries!
Martin is a writer of contemporary fiction who lives in Melbourne, Australia. He studied at the Australian National University before becoming a teacher of English Literature. Martin has been published online and in print and is currently writing his first novel. Martin enjoys reading works of all types, and this includes your entries
Robin is an author and ghostwriter living on the Sunshine Coast. She has published 6 novels, a memoir and two collections of short stories. She has won awards in short story competitions and been published in numerous short story anthologies, such as Stringybark Stories and Tales2Inspire.