Art2Words Writing Prize
Posted on May 11, 2021
This year has seen the inaugural Art2Words Writing Prize run at The Friends’ School in collaboration with Forty South. Prizes are sponsored by The Hobart Bookshop and, in community partnership with Forty South Publishing, the work of the Friends’ student-artist and winning entries from student-writers are published on the ‘Young Tasmania’ page of Forty South’s online magazine.
Based upon the Ancient Greek practice of ekphrasis (responding to an artwork in words) the Art2Words competition involves students writing either a short story or poem in response to a student artwork. The artwork chosen as inspiration for this year’s competition is titled Opulence, which is a series of work by Friends’ student Georgina Davy (Year 12). This striking series of mixed media works won the 2020 Friends’ School’s Visual Arts Prize.
The Art2Words competition was held in Term 1 and received a wide selection of truly remarkable entries from across the School. Chris Champion, Director and Editor of Forty South and judge of the prize, was incredibly impressed with the caliber of the competition entries, going on to say that “Every one of the finalists in all four sections earns an Editor’s Star”.
When it came to choosing a winner he said that “In two sections I strongly considered awarding an equal first. But winners there must be…” and those winners are:
2021 Art2Words Writing Prize:
Secondary (Years 7-9) Poetry Section
Short-listed:
Rupert Bullard (Year 9): ‘I Remember’
Tom Petty (Year 9): ‘The Existence of Triumph’
Winner: Sahansa Udawatta (Year 9): ‘The Broken Jigsaw’
Secondary (Years 7-9) Short Story Section
Short-listed:
Milly Taranaki (Year 9): ‘Why her, why take her away from me’
Willow Henry (Year 9): untitled entry
Winner: Callum Jarvis (Year 9): ‘The Farm’
Senior Secondary (Years 10-12) Poetry Section
Short-listed:
Regine Chua (Year 10): ‘The Second Deadly Sin’
Winner: Annabel Woolward (Year 11): ‘Stitched Up’
Senior Secondary (Years 10-12) Short Story Section
Short-listed:
Zoe Gangell (Year 11): ‘Before I Go’
Lila Gould (Year 12): ‘Mouse’
Winner: May Moe (Year 11): ‘Smoke, City and Skins’
Thank you to Forty South, the Hobart Book Shop, and to everyone who entered the Art2Words Writing Competition this year. It takes courage to put your work forward and to have it published and all our entrants should be incredibly proud of the high-quality work they submitted.
