FREMANTLE ROUND HOUSE JOHN GAVIN WRITING COMPETITION 2022 JUDGES

Maureen Gibbons has a Doctor of Creative Arts from Curtin University of Technology. Her poetry is published in Rabbit, Westerly and Cordite. Her verse novel, The Butter Lady: A Silhouette Biography in Verse is published by Rabbit.

Before her retirement she taught poetry throughout the state in primary and district high schools and tutored in poetry and conducted Creative Workshops for doctoral students at Curtin University of Technology.

Maria Papas is a West Australian writer whose fiction, creative non-fiction and academic essays have appeared in various journals including TEXT, Griffith Review, Axon and The Letters Page. She holds a PhD from the University of Western Australia where she researched the ways people share narratives of illness and trauma. In 2020, the creative component of her research won the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award, and has since been published as her debut novel, Skimming Stones. Maria works as an English teacher and sessional academic, and when she is not writing or working, you can find her near the coast or with family.

 

We would like to thank our judges!

Their experience, wisdom, and willingness to judge the John Gavin Writing Competition has added integrity and credibility to our first main foray into a writing competition that spanned the country.

The standard of entries was incredibly high and made the judges task that more difficult but at the same time, enjoyable.

We are truly honoured to have judges of this calibre willing to give of their time and expertise.

Maureen Gibbons commented that she found something interesting and innovative in each entry and it had been challenging narrowing it down to the final winners, such was the high quality of entries.

Maria Papas commented that the Flash Fiction entries were all so enjoyable to read.

Maria also judged the WA Schools’ entries and observed …”I thought it was quite tough to choose even a longlist, let alone a winner. I’m very impressed with all the entrants. It’s really nice to see so many talented up-and-coming writers and I hope all the entrants continue writing. …It was a pleasure to judge this competition. I am in awe of all the young talent out there”.

Our judges will be invited to present awards and give their speeches on their experience of judging this very well received competition.

We would like to also thank everyone who entered the competition and have made it such a great success and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on Sunday, 26 June 2022, 1.00pm-3.30pm, Round House Lawn, at our free community event where our winning entrants will read their award winning work.

Click here for Event Flyer

WINNING ENTRIES

THE JOHN GAVIN WRITING COMPETITION – BALLAD, FLASH FICTION & WA SCHOOLS’ CATEGORIES

 

BALLAD:

1ST PRIZE                              WF Kingston – Ballad – The Ghost of John Gavin

2nd PRIZE                            Anne-Louise Dubrawski – Ballad – The Ballad of John Gavin

HIGHLY COMMENDED Ellen Dracopoulos – Ballad – Dirge for a Sinner

FLASH FICTION:

1ST PRIZE                            Jean Hudson – Flash Fiction – The Adze

2nd PRIZE                            Alison Dennison – Flash Fiction – The afflicted heart

HIGHLY COMMENDED Claire Dugouchet – Flash Fiction – The Life & Times of John Gavin

WA SCHOOLS:

1ST PRIZE                            Mudith Kariyawasam – WA Schools – The Execution

2nd PRIZE                            Paige Marley – WA Schools – Young Life on the Line

HIGHLY COMMENDED Lime Jang – WA Schools – One Boys Life

YOUNG WRITER’S ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD                  Summer Johnston – My Final Breath

(Selected by the John Gavin Writing Competition  Sub Committee)