Jean Yeates Writing Prize 2024
Posted on August 19, 2024
Every year when the presentation of the Jean Yeates Writing Prize comes around, we are given cause to reflect on the difference teachers make in inspiring creativity in our students. Certainly, this is something that the English Faculty value highly, and Jean Yeates, a former staff member at the School, was known for having high expectations and a passion for writing.
Some years ago now, Kathy Rundle, our former Archivist, compiled a book titled People of the School, which cites Jean Yeates as having ‘a passion for the English Language, … devotion to education, … and the difference she made to many students’ lives over her 30 years of service at The Friends’ School’.
This year we were privileged to not only have a successful writer, but also a journalist, Senior Lecturer in English and teacher of creative writing, and alumna as the judge of this year’s Jean Yeates Writing Prize: Danielle Wood. Danielle writes fiction and non-fiction for both adults and children. She wrote The Alphabet of Light and Dark, as part of her PhD at Edith Cowan University, which won the prestigious Vogel Literary Prize in 2002 and the Dobbie Award in 2004. Her other works include Rosie Little’s Cautionary Tales for Girls, Mothers Grimm and Housewife Superstar: the very best of Marjorie Bligh. She also collaborates with fellow Tasmanian writer Heather Rose, under the pen name ‘Angelica Banks’, to produce a trilogy of adventure stories featuring a young writer, Tuesday McGillycuddy; Finding Serendipity, A Week Without Tuesday and Blueberry Pancakes Forever have been published in Australia, Germany and the USA. Alongside her published novels, Danielle is the co-editor, with Professor Ralph Crane, of two anthologies of Tasmanian literature, Deep South: Stories from Tasmania and Island Story: Tasmania in Object and Text. She has also written a selection of prose poems, essays and monologues published in Island (162 and 164), the Tasmanian Land Conservancy’s anthology Breathing Space, South of the Sun, feminist literary journal Hecate, and international anthology Inviting Interruptions: Wonder Tales in the Twenty-First Century.
Danielle was unable to be at the Senior School assembly in person to present the prize winners, however, she prepared a short video for the prize announcement:
This year we congratulate joint winners: Hazel Jennings (Year 11) and Grace Winspear (Year 12) on their success and for sharing their writing with our community.
Danielle Wood observed that Hazel’s Memoir Cocoon of Stars works with the metaphor of the moon receding from us before switching to the profoundly personal view that we are all receiving from our beginnings as we change and grow. Her writing was delicate and honest, and Danielle especially liked her clean copy and correct use of the semicolon. Grace’s poetic entry Sleeping Beauty “riffs on the iconography of fairy tales … in an abundant deluge of striking imagery”, according to Danielle. It is pleasing to note that both students have been long time entrants in School writing prizes and competitions, and have enjoyed participating in opportunities in the writing space.
In addition, we are equally as pleased to announce that Danielle Wood will be working with students and staff in the Senior School in the coming weeks as our 2024 Writer in Residence. English teachers will be in communication with students about in-class and extension opportunities for creative writers. Our younger students will also be engaging with Danielle in workshops in the coming term.
