litlinks 2021

A creative writing competition for ACT school students and their teachers

Year 11 & 12 Category, 2021

Image: A group of year 11 and 12 students working on their stories.

The standard of writing of the entries in the year 11 and 12 category was high, as was the ability of all the writers to craft well structured and literate stories.

While the subject matter was often bleak, the themes all provided important and sometimes provocative commentary on contemporary issues. There was also clever and imaginative reference to literary classics in some pieces.

Click on the images and links below to explore the winners in the Years 11 & 12 Category:

Click here to read Mrs Mephistopheles by Julia Murphy
Click here to read Curiosity Killed the Cat by Asha Patterson
Click here to read Before the Dawn by Lauren O’Daly
Click here to read Crosscut Macaws by Serena Drur

Winners:

Finalist Awards:

  • Tessa Ballard, Dickson College – Little Prisons
  • Maia French, Brindabella Christian College – The Fragility of Glass
  • Genevieve Lo, Radford College – Anything but Curious
  • Henry Lucas, Melba Copland Secondary School – Her
  • Bill Nott, Canberra College – The Stories They Tell Us

LitLinks Achievement Awards:

  • Caitlin Allen, Lake Tuggeranong College – Violets
  • Will Browne, Melba Copland Secondary School – Pineapple on Pizza
  • Sophie Chandler, St Clare’s College – No Place for Pinelli
  • Anna Clift, Trinity Christian School – Soon
  • Taylor Dawes, Lake Tuggeranong College – Delicate, Docile Rose
  • Lily Kelly-Ebbeck, Radford College – Daisies
  • Asher Freudigmann, Brindabella Christian College – Origami Cranes
  • Asher Freudigmann, Brindabella Christian College – Seven Years Later
  • Mischa George, Trinity Christian School – The Black Letters
  • Eva Goswell, Brindabella Christian College – To Chance the Gap
  • Hannah Holford, Lake Tuggeranong College – Morning Shift
  • Elizabeth Keys, Hawker College – Strawberries and Cigarettes
  • Genevieve Lo, Radford College – Anything But Curious
  • Jasleen Malhotra, Hawker College – A Cage with a Small Leak
  • Ethan Morrison-Foy, Hawker College – For Room and Board, I Shall Write!
  • Justine Murphy, Canberra College – A Collection of Common Misfortunes
  • Stephen Pantazetzis, Radford College – The Purge
  • Hannah Phelps, Melba Copland Secondary School – And They Were Room Mates
  • Ryan Pritchard, University of Canberra Senior Secondary College Lake Ginninderra – Dr Eliza’s Patient
  • Emily Rae-Brinsden, Canberra Girls Grammar School – The Little Crocodile
  • Zali Rackel, Hawker College – A Normal Day
  • Dinu Ranatunga, Radford College – No Pain, No Gain
  • Laura Rippon, Lake Tuggeranong College – The Theft of The Opal Eclipse
  • Svetlana Ross, Canberra College – On the Nature of Contentment
  • Tanya Singh, Daramalan College – The Man Who Wept
  • Cindy Tran, Lake Tuggeranong College – Life in the Valley
  • Elizabeth Vandermeide, Melba Copland Secondary School – Psithurism
  • Sonia Vlatkovic, Radford College – Memento
  • Connor Watts, Brindabella Christian College – Time Flies

Judges

ACTATE thanks the year 11 and 12 category judges, Christina Cochrane and Sandra Lambert, for their time and expertise.

Both are English teachers who also worked as educational consultants in the USA. Christina is a former ACTATE executive member and Sandra was a principal of an ACT college.