litlinks 2026

A creative writing competition for ACT school students and their teachers

Year 11& 12 Category, 2026

Image: A group of students writing together.

As always we have been impressed by the quality of the writing in this section. Writers have shown a real depth of perception about contemporary issues and have revealed imaginative ways of dealing with such areas as invasive technologies, dystopian worlds, mental health and well being, arranged marriages and global conflict.

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

Image: A flower pot full of red poppies.
Image: A man talking into his phone. A chatbot hovers above it.
Image: A woman in a lab, having her brain scanned while a technician supervises.
Image: Two figures escaping into a dystopian wasteland.

Winners:

Short List

  • Saranya Chanduri, Narrabundah College - Dusk to Dawn, Dawn to Dusk
  • Om Deshmukh, Dickson College - The Mirror
  • Hamish Foley, Marist College- A Starry Night
  • Imogen Hales, Daramalan College - When I Shall Find the Sea
  • Lucy Horne, Trinity Christian School - Pigeonholing
  • Ava Ison, Hawker College - Letting Go
  • Sidney Keir, Daramalan College - Ten Words or Less
  • Angelina Lin, Canberra Girls Grammar School - A Lesson On One Leg
  • Skye Mitry, Hawker College - Ghosts of the Living
  • Zoe White, Canberra College - Letter to Iphigenia

LitLinks Achievement Awards:

  • Hanna Aby, St Mary Mackillop College - Folded Hands
  • Penny Aceituno, St Clare’s College - The Great Door
  • Charlie Caldwell, Marist College - 8:06
  • Clelia Ciocca-Marchant, Canberra College - Mere Speculation
  • Abby Cvitanovic, Dickson College - Windmills
  • Amoraine Duvenhage, Canberra Institute of Technology - TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS & USER MANUAL - UNIT A19
  • Alexis Ford, UC Senior Secondary College Lake Ginninderra - Trying
  • Ayansa Gamage, Daramalan College - Keep the Pyre Burning
  • Vinuki Geeganage, Trinity Christian School - Three Years, Six Months and Silence
  • Claudia Hall, UC Senior Secondary College Lake Ginninderra - The Red Room
  • Sophie Harris, St Clare’s College - Warped
  • Abigail Hernandez, St John Paul II College - ::WELCOME TO VAPOUR CITY!; おいでやす;
  • Jane Jouravlev, Canberra College - The Young Ones
  • Aishwarya Karthik, Narrabundah College - Anatomy of a Lock
  • Hana Klopsteins, Hawker College - Chasing Stars
  • Annabel Lee, Narrabundah College - 88
  • Georgina Leggett, Canberra Girls Grammar School - The Phoenix
  • Ruby Livermore, UC Senior Secondary College Lake Ginninderra - Wellbeing Has been Successfully Updated
  • Marissa Morabito, St Clare’s College - The Aftermath
  • Elena Munoz, St Clare’s College - Sobriety in Seconds
  • Isla Olney, Dickson College - Rabbit Hole
  • Maleah Oxley, Hawker College - Caoineag
  • Chelsea Delteza Patriarca, Daramalan College - Falling
  • Delilah Phillips, St Clare’s College - Seeing Through Him
  • Charlotte Reynolds, Lake Tuggeranong College - Husband
  • Lainie Robertson, UC Senior Secondary College Lake Ginninderra - Where Cotton Grows
  • Audrey Ryan, Narrabundah College – Static
  • Sophia Sepulveda, Lake Tuggeranong College - Sunflowers
  • Lucy Thorpe, St John Paul II College - Diary of a Shapeshifter
  • Somon Vos, Dickson College - The Forest and I
  • Alexandra Wambach, Lake Tuggeranong College - Fugitive's Tacenda
  • Serena Yoo, Narrabundah College - A Frequency of 52-Hertz=

Judges

ACTATE thanks the Year 11 & 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.