Melbourne author wins Local Word Writing Prize

THE winner of this year’s Local Word Writing Prize has been announced, with an author from Box Hill securing the top honour.

Carolyn Leach-Paholski’s entry Hokusai in the Antipodes – Thirty-Six Love Letters to a Mountain impressed the judging panel, earning her a $2,000 prize and one-hour mentoring session with a Deakin University practitioner.

Established in 2022 and delivered by Geelong Regional Libraries (GRL) in partnership with Deakin University, the Local Word Writing Prize accepts fiction and creative nonfiction submissions of up to 3,000 words.

This year’s competition drew more than 500 entries from across Australia.

Entries were narrowed to a longlist of 24, then a subsequent shortlist of four by a judging panel comprising Deakin University’s Professor David McCooey, GRL chief executive Vanessa Schernickau and GRL virtual writer in residence Alice Eaves.

All works were judged anonymously.

Professor McCooey said Leach-Paholski’s winning submission was “a beautifully realised short story” that brought together “apparently disjunct things – the past and the present, Eastern and Western sensibilities – with powerful lyricism”.

He said Leach-Paholski’s entry, along with the three other works shortlisted for the prize, were “compelling instances of contemporary writing”.

“This year’s submissions brought together an extraordinary range of stories and styles.

“Many works dealt with the crises of everyday life, as well as shared crises (such as the climate emergency), while others celebrated the pleasures that life has to offer.”

He said The Air Gap, the shortlisted and highly commended submission of North Geelong local Penne Thornton, was “a moving work of creative fiction”, while Bird Found by Melbourne author Leticia Parish and Premiership Quarter by Warrnambool author Hannah Duffus “though stylistically very different, both show how prose fiction can offer powerful, sometimes comic, insights into our emotional worlds”.

Each of the shortlisted pieces has also received $250.

GRL chief executive Vanessa Schernickau congratulated Leach-Paholski on her winning submission.

“We were overwhelmed by not only the number of entries this year, but by the standard of writing,” she said.

“We’re very proud of our Local Word Writing Prize for the sense of community it provides for writers and thank you to Deakin University for their continued support.

“Thanks also to our judges and all the entrants, both local and from further afield. We hope to see their works on our shelves in the future.”

Entries for the 2024 Local Word Poetry Prize have now opened and will close on Monday, July 1.

For more information, head to grlc.vic.gov.au