The five full Young-Adult Novels sent to competition judge Louise O’Neill are:

That Quiet Earth by Angus Gaunt
Armadillo by Erica Shaw
Jellyfish Dreaming by Deb McCutchen
Flight by Karen Palmer
Enby by Ronnie Greig

We will announce the winning novel, as chosen by Louise, within a few days.

Title
The Tricium Mines
That Quiet Earth
Armadillo
Can’t Get You Out of my Head
She Doesn’t Fit In
Jellyfish Dreaming
Flight
The Soldier and the Gypsy
Enby
Brilliant Corners

FIRST
Trashfish by Chloe Wilson
SECOND
Transformation  by Nicholas Ruddock
THIRD
Forwards, Backwards, Sideways  by Jackie Burgoyne

HONORARY MENTIONS:
Land of Stones   by Mark Smith
Boy  by Robert Barrett
Comrades by Charlie Weaver Rolfe
The Ride   by Rucha Modak
Tiffy   by Nancy Ludmerer
Wreck   by Mark Sutz
TV VS Walking by Katerina Protopsaltis

93 flash stories shortlisted
(1285 flash stories submitted in total)

200 flash stories longlisted
(1285 flash stories submitted in total)

This set of memoirs opened a few windows into how writers deal with suffering. Or rather into the question about the difference between a personal account and a fine piece of writing. Some chose a fragmented, episodic, almost cinematic approach to events. Other wrote the more traditional story with a beginning, a middle and an end, and with an overarching image that gathered everything into itself. In almost all the cases the inner conflict of the story teller, the ‘I’ was set side by side with the compassion for the suffering of others. But in many of these stories I saw the effort to create images that would communicate to the reader, and I am glad of that.

How do we transform personal experience of pain into literature? How do we create and then chisel away at those images of others, of loss, of suffering, of unspeakable helplessness so that they become works of art that aim for a shared humanity? What is the role of language—lyrical, descriptive or confessional in portraying these strong experiences? What exactly is the language of memory? The pieces selected here seem to prompt all these questions and the best of them offer some great answers. The more I read through them, the more I saw the selection criteria embedded in the writing itself, so that I did not need to rely on outside definitions of what makes a good memoir. Each piece was judged on its own merit, for what it aimed at as writing.

At the end of the process I feel grateful and honoured to have read all of these pieces. Regardless of whether a prize was conferred on any of these memoirs, I felt that no writing was wasted. Writing will always be praised, ignored, set apart, singled out for reviews, examined and torn apart but no writing ever is a waste of time. I believe it is a way to put order in the mess of our lives and to reach out to others. In this sense I find it all necessary. It’s wonderful to have publishers such as Fish who support it and help the writers hone their skill.

FIRST
Throat of Morning  by Wendell Hawken
SECOND
The Torso and the Lotus  by David Horovitch
THIRD
Porn  by Saffron Marchant

HONORARY MENTIONS:
Van Men   by John Harris
Dutch Scene Before Divorce  by Nicola Waldron
Kibun by Elizabeth Browne
The Beach Umbrella   by Eva Faber
No More Encores   by Aida Lennon
Symphony Date   by Cathy Beres
Christmas is Coming by Alan Coley

90 memoirs shortlisted
(780 memoirs submitted in total)

197 memoirs longlisted
(780 memoirs submitted in total)