National Cherry Festival Writing Competition A Huge Success

There were a high number of entries in this year’s competition.

A very supportive and enthusiastic crowd gathered on the historic Young train station platform on Sunday morning as part of the Cherry Festival celebrations.

They were there to honour writers who’d “had a go” and to award prizes in the Lambing Flat Writers Group annual Short Story and Poetry Competition.

Alan Hewett from Wodonga, Victoria, won the first prize in the Adult Short Story section for his story, Fair Game and Julie Butler from Walcha, NSW, won first prize in the Adult Poetry section for her poem, Field to Page.

There were a high number of successful entries from local school children, especially in the Years 1 to 6 Short Story section.

First place in the Years 1, 2 and 3 section was awarded to Rosie Scott from St Joseph’s Boorowa for her story, The Banana In Undies and second prize for her story, The Pickle Pirates, went to Young Public School’s Gabriel Corkery.

All stories and poems are judged “blind” and solely on merit, so it was especially pleasing to have several Highly Commended, Commended and Encouragement Awards given to students from Young Public School and St John’s Primary School, Boorowa.

Local poets in the Junior Poetry section for Years 1, 2 and 3 were also very well represented in the Commended and Encouragement Award levels. In the Years 10, 11, and 12 Poetry Section, Josh Cameron from Young took out first place with his poem, The Rusty Chain.

Isabella Carr from Cootamundra was awarded the Encouragement Award for her short story, Memories Of Her.

Judges were pleased with the standard of entries, commenting that “overall, the entries were very good and the standard keeps improving every year.”

They also said that a student receiving an Encouragement award meant they were in the top 6 or 8 in their section - no mean feat.

Members of the Lambing Flat Writers Group congratulated all of the successful writers and poets who entered the competition from both near and far and thanked them for having a go.

They also thanked and praised the teachers who were encouraging and mentoring the next generation of writers and poets.