Writing Competition
Writing Competition – English Department
Book Week 2021 – ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds and Other Worlds.’
This year our junior school students were invited to submit their creative writing entries in response to the 2021 CBCA book week theme.
We were overwhelmed with responses but not at all surprised to see how many talented writers we have in our school community.
We would like to thank all the students who entered and announce the writing Excellence Award Winners for each year level:
Year 9 Writing Excellence Award
Swara Rao 9G (Poem)
A thousand books, A thousand lives
Books are an escape to a new, exhilarating life,
A much needed escape from my reality.
An escape from a dull and monotonous life,
An escape from a treacherous and monstrous world.
Living as someone I can never be,
If only for a few hours or a few days.
Books are a lifeline gifted to me;
They are the small light in my darkness.
I may be imprisoned and shackled,
Stuck in this mind-numbing life,
But nobody can confine my mind;
Nobody can stop me from imagining.
Each book, each story, each chapter,
A new and intoxicating experience.
An opportunity to get away, to get lost.
A chance to feel, a chance to learn.
If only they knew what books meant to me.
If only they knew that books allowed to me live,
They wouldn’t ask why I got lost in made-up worlds.
They wouldn’t make fun when I buried myself in the pages,
Rather than coming back to my own encaging life.
They wouldn’t wonder why I was unsatisfied,
If they knew that the life I crave,
The life that I so desperately desire,
Is always an excruciatingly distant lifetime away,
Hidden away in hundreds of beautiful pages,
That I have lived precariously through.
Year 8 Writing Excellence Award
Ava Renton 8G (Excerpt – Fiction)
My not so sunken home
‘The wind whipped my hair across my face and then the ground jerked out from under my feet, I fell over onto my knees and looked down as the island was sinking. The dark sea was submerging the island, eating it from the outside leaving floating cars and buildings. I yelled but I watched as the last scaffolding tower was smashed by a huge scaly tail under the water. I was hanging in mid-air just floating there as I watched everything I have ever known and loved fall to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. I screamed and cried, staring at the huge island being pulled to the depths of the ocean.’
Year 7 Writing Excellence Award
Jamie Spanneberg 7C (Excerpt - Fiction)
The Storybook to another world
‘It was time for a new adventure. She reached her hand towards the big wide wooden shelf, grabbing a book and placing it on her stack. The air was scented with the delicious smell of hot cocoa and the crackling sound of the dancing fire lit up the room with the cosy feeling of home. Outside, heavy rain poured, thunder echoing in the distance. This was her ideal setting. Snuggled up on a rocking chair covered in a collection of warm fluffy blankets and a ton of books to read was the one and only, Josephy. Josephy caressed the smooth wood cover of the book and when she flipped the book open she felt the zephyr against her face. She had recently been gifted new books to add to her library and she’d finally had the perfect opportunity to read them.’
Year 7 Writing Excellence Award
Hannah Lupton (Excerpt- Fiction)
Reflection
‘Millions of humans standing in parallel rows on her street, mirrors made of diamonds sheltering the sky in a blanket. She forces herself not to look at the mirrors although the humans told her too. She forces herself to not look at. The humans are staring into oblivion, humming poems of gibberish’.
Encouragement Awards
Special encouragement awards for creative writing:
Boris Tosivic 7G, Leam Arinz 7G, Keren Schauder 7G
Gemma Fisher
English Teacher