Young Writers From The Wellington Region Celebrated

Two parallel love stories in a respite care setting by Year 13 student Hannah Wilson has been judged the winning entry in the 2022 Mansfield Short Story Award, announced at an event held for finalists at the National Library on Wednesday 21 November. A shortlist of 11 finalists from local secondary schools was judged by Victor Rodger CNZM, an award-winning writer across a range of forms. The annual competition is open to Year 12 and 13 students in the Wellington region.

Wilson, a student at Raphael House Rudolph Steiner School in Lower Hutt, said she got the idea for her story ‘Henry and Eliza’ while in hospital herself when she had conversations with another patient through those classic blue hospital curtains without ever seeing them. “I kept the idea in my mind for almost a year before I revisited it and developed it further, incorporating the parallel relationship between the nurses.”

Rodger said he awarded the $500 cash prize to this story because “Of all the stories, this was the one that truly made me care about each of the characters.” He praised the “beautifully modulated piece of writing” and noted that “neither love story ends in the way I expected it to.”

Wilson was a finalist in last year’s awards and the Director of Katherine Mansfield House & Garden, Cherie Jacobson, said this was the second year in a row that a finalist from the previous year’s competition had gone on to win the award. “I’m thrilled to see students persevering with their writing, continuing to develop, and being rewarded for that. I hope that all the Year 12 finalists this year keep writing and enter again next year.”

Speaking at the event, Rodger highlighted the subjectivity of awards, “Awards are great. I’ve won a few. Love getting them. But over the years, I’ve come to realise one thing: awards are – like all forms of art – entirely subjective. Ultimately, the winner of any award is only ever a reflection of whoever is judging the award. I could literally make a case for just about any one of these shortlisted stories to be the winner of this competition.”

Three stories were highly commended. ‘Full Grey Sky’ by Maxim Ericson from Wellington College was described by Rodger as having “an incredibly strong rhythm and a muscular use of language that builds to a dark, unsettling climax.” Rodger found ‘Leave Me Alone’ by Carly Hyde from Newlands College to be “utterly compelling from start to finish and full of surprises - some of them very gruesome.” Rodger described ‘Borame’ by Elise Jung-Leask from Wairarapa College as “technically in a league of its own and highly unusual in that the main character is not a person, but, instead, a park in Korea.”

Rodger said, for him, a good short story should take you somewhere and all eleven of the finalists’ stories succeeded in doing that, in very different ways.

Jacobson acknowledged the support of the Gay Saker Bequest, “We are so grateful to the Gay Saker Bequest for making this Award possible,” says Jacobson. “Recognising the work of young local writers is a wonderful way of celebrating Katherine Mansfield’s creative legacy, especially as we approach the centenary of Katherine Mansfield’s death in January next year.”

The stories of all 11 finalists have been published on the Katherine Mansfield House & Garden website, with the winner also being published on the Verb Wellington website.

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