Budding writers shared hundreds of stories and poems in our 24th Boroondara Literary Awards.
We are excited to reveal the winners, announced late last year in a ceremony at the Hawthorn Arts Centre. The annual competition, held in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Balwyn, is open to writers of all ages. More than 1,000 writers took part last year, including 12-year-old Joel Hu who won equal first place in the Junior Poetry category.
“My poem was about lies,” says Joel. “Like webs, they are almost invisible. However, also like webs, you can be tangled in them. I enjoy injecting humour into my writing. In this poem, I recounted an incident where I was discovered for lying about a lolly stash under my bed.”
Winning and highly commended entries, including Joel’s, have been published in the 2022 Boroondara Literary Awards Anthology, which is available to loan and buy through the Boroondara Library Service. To view the full list of winners and the highly commended entries for each category, visit our 2022 Boroondara Literary Award winners page.
2022 Boroondara Literary Award winners
Open Short Story Competition: Gillian Hagenus, Early Summer
Keith Carroll Award for best Boroondara entrant: Linda Judge, One Hundred Percent Chance Of Rain
Young Writers’ Competition winners: Prose
Junior prose category: Jamie Greening, Spider, Fly And The Timeless Tomb
Middle prose category: Amy Yang, Wrong Script
Senior prose category: Mia Kagiaros, Azi’s Magic Garden
Young Writers’ Competition winners: Poetry
Junior poetry category: Joel Hu, The Web, and Arohan Dasgupta, A Box For Sale (equal first place)
Middle poetry category: Rhea Jaitha, I’ll See You At The ‘Butcher’
Senior poetry category: Sharon Zhang, Ophelia Talks To Sharon About Men, Death and Violets