By Lachlan Ellis<\/p>\n
A Moorabool author has taken out one of the country\u2019s top writing awards, for her dystopian short story \u2018The Surrogate\u2019.<\/p>\n
Bacchus Marsh\u2019s Jem Tyley-Miller won the Melbourne Athenaeum Body-in-the-Library Library Award, at the 29th Scarlet Stiletto Awards on Saturday 3 December.<\/p>\n
The Scarlet Stiletto Awards is open to female authors only, and has had almost 3000 stories submitted since it began in 1994.<\/p>\n
Ms Tyley-Miller took home $1250 along with the Award, and said it was an honour to receive it after years of entries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinning this award has left me on such a high; I\u2019ve been trying to crack this competition for a few years now, and with the Body in the Library Award being the most fought over category, a win feels especially sweet,\u201d she told the Moorabool News.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story I entered is actually the second short story I ever wrote. I always loved the idea behind The Surrogate but didn\u2019t have the skills to tell it the way I wanted until recently; learning to write well takes a lot of dedication and time. I must have revised a good 30 times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Tyley-Miller\u2019s winning piece is a climate fiction crime story set in a waterlogged Melbourne 100 years in the future, where those who are wealthy inhabit the spaces high above the waterline, and those who are poor endure the wet.<\/p>\n
She said her writing was often inspired by her feelings on certain ideas, such as climate change in the case of The Surrogate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrow a crime at an idea and you get to see human beings interact within that given set of circumstances. The end result is always illuminating,\u201d Ms Tyley-Miller said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll definitely be holding tight to this win as I embark on a new novel come February.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moorabool residents may recognise Ms Tyley-Miller as the co-organiser of the Peter Carey Short Story Award. Her short stories are also published in Meanjin, Overland, Margaret River Press, Scarlett Stiletto \u2013 The 14th Cut, and other places.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lachlan Ellis A Moorabool author has taken out one of the country\u2019s top writing awards, for her dystopian short story \u2018The Surrogate\u2019. Bacchus Marsh\u2019s Jem Tyley-Miller won the Melbourne Athenaeum Body-in-the-Library Library Award, at the 29th Scarlet Stiletto Awards on Saturday 3 December. The Scarlet Stiletto Awards is open to female authors only, and […]<\/p>\n