On 25 November 2021 we gathered online to celebrate the winners of the 23rd annual Boroondara Literary Awards.
In the second-ever digital ceremony, Mayor Cr Jane Addis congratulated the 1282 local writers who shared their stories. She noted the quality entries in this year’s competition and the creative talent within the Boroondara community.
The stories and poems submitted this year are exceptional and demonstrate not only the culture of literacy that exists within our community but also the breadth of talent and creativity.
Three judges were engaged to select the 2021 winners and highly commended entries: Chloe Hooper, for the Open Short Story; Nam Le for the Young Writers’ Poetry; and Leanne Hall, for the Young Writers’ Prose. The winners shared in more than $8,000 of prize money.
Sophie Matthiesson was selected as the winner of the Open Short Story Competition for her mesmerising tale, Dead Heifers, set in the aftermath of a bushfire, while Linda Judge was awarded the honorary Keith Carroll award for her atmospheric story, Scrub Crawl.
Cr Addis thanked the Rotary Club of Balwyn, for its support of the Literary Awards, along with the local schools and writers who participated in this year’s Writers in Schools Program.
The partnership between Boroondara Council and the Rotary Club of Balwyn underpins the continued success of the Literary Awards. Each year we continue to see the number of entries grow and a big thank you the club for their ongoing support.
2021 winners
Open Short Story Competition
- Sophie Matthiesson, Dead Heifers
Keith Carroll Award
- Linda Judge, Scrub Crawl
Young Writers’ Competition: Prose
- Junior prose category: Annalisa Chen, Everything has a Price
- Middle prose category: Rosa Toon, Stonewall
- Senior prose category: Angelina Liu, Whale
Young Writers’ Competition: Poetry
- Junior poetry category: Joel Hu, The Wall
- Middle poetry category: Hazel Angelucci, Green Grove
- Senior poetry category: Marcus Peeters-Williams, Let Me Kiss You, Daddy Stalin
The winners and highly commended entries of the 2021 Literary Awards have been published in the 2021 Boroondara Literary Awards Anthology. The Anthology will be available to loan and purchase through Council libraries.
To view the full list of winners and the highly commended entries for each category, visit our 2021 Boroondara Literary Awards page.
