Emerging writers discovered at Armadale Young Writers' Awards
City of Armadale 11 Sep 2018

Talented up and coming writers were recognised at the 2018 Armadale Young Writers' Awards last Friday 7 September.

Now in its eighth year, this year's competition attracted 170 story submissions from students from Years 3 to 12.

The winning stories were praised for their ability to transport the reader to another world and ranged from tales of monsters and humans in This is War by Serene Benny, to a genius student who uses his computer skills to win money on horses in Cyberspace by David Poppe, to a story about five strangers who each come across an old woman in City Streets by Aydee Bull – who was the overall winner of this year's Awards.

Award winning children’s book author Norman Jorgensen was in attendance along with City of Armadale Councillor Colin Campbell who said the Awards which began in 2011 were a wonderful celebration of the written word and presented an opportunity to acknowledge the abundance of creative talent in the region.

“The City of Armadale continues to support written and creative expression and these awards recognise the exceptional talent of young people in our community.

“We have been extremely impressed with the standard of entries and are excited to see what the future brings for these imaginative young writers,” he said.

2018 Armadale Young Writers' Award winners:

Category - Years 3 & 4

1st Tuppence Cornelius Danger Behind

2nd Lila McLeod The Button

3rd Emelia Pickering Chloe’s Unexpected Adventure

Category - Years 5 & 6

1st Serene Benny This is War

2nd Reigan deCastro Ancients Evil

3rd Pacey Van Burgel The Boy in the Cellar

Category - Years 7 & 8

1st Aydee Bull City Streets

2nd Dolapo Ogunleye The day my life wasn’t the same

3rd Kyra Bredenhof Open Hearts

Category Years 9 & 10

1st David Poppe Cyberspace

2nd Rhea Manoj Scream

3rd Berwan Dekker Helheim’s Gate

Overall Winner

1st Aydee Bull City Streets

Honourable mentions from the Years 11 & 12 category were Rania Arif, Taj Bouwhuis and Bonnie Morrison.

All winners received a trophy, certificate, cash prizes and vouchers. The winning stories have been compiled into an anthology which means that all winners are now published authors. The book will be available for loan from the City of Armadale Libraries and for viewing on the library website.

Entry forms for the 2019 competition will be available in May next year.