Budding young writers announced for the Armadale Young Writers’ Awards

Talented young writers were recognised at the 2023 Armadale Young Writers’ Awards presentation evening held on Friday 1 September, 2023 at the City of Armadale’s Administration Centre.

The competition is open to students who live or go to school in the City of Armadale in Years 3 to 12.

Students interested in entering the competition received some great writing tips and encouragement from local author Deb Fitzpatrick during in-house workshops, held ahead of them putting pen to paper.

The award winners receive a copy of the book containing the winning works and other prizes during the presentation attended by the City of Armadale Mayor, councillors and judges and their families.

Mayor Ruth Butterfield said the City is proud to support and promote writing and creative writing and expression by young people in our local community.

“This year we celebrated the 13th anniversary of the Award and had a great response with a total of 168 entries received.

“I’m so impressed with the standard of entries and excited to see what the future brings for these imaginative young writers. Our judges Alia Parker and Margaret Robson Kett had a difficult task selecting the winners for each category”, said Mayor Butterfield.

The overall winning entry selected by the judges as the most outstanding story of the competition was award to Year 8 student Mudith Kariyawasam for his story about a fishing trip for two brothers which turns to tragedy as a storm intensifies and washes one of them away. The judges commented on the excellent characterization of the natural elements, with the sky and the sea described in musical terms which work on the reader powerfully.

Additional Information

This year’s winners are:

Category             Years 3 & 4

First Place           The Swordsman by Harvey Lumia

Second Place      The Wonderous Club by Emily Turnbull

Third Place          Escape by Zachary Joel Lim

Category             Years 5 & 6

First Place          Cora and a Baby Rabbit by Indigo Anderson

Second Place      The Hidden Portal by Audrey Lewis

Third Place         Whispers of the Forest: The Chosen One and the Squirrel by Gaurika Gandhi

Category             Years 7 & 8

First Place          The Song of the Sea by Mudith Kariyawasam

Second Place      We All Deserve Peace by Ethna Josephine Jimmy

Third Place         Controlled by Sasmitha Thebuwana

Category             Years 9 & 10

First Place          The Treasures I Once Held by Lila De Sena

Second Place      The Descent by Hai Nam Phan

Third Place         The Legend of Kolrass Flametongue by Alexander Veldman

Category             Years 11 & 12

First Place          A Blessing Called Life by Annlia Santhosh

Second Place      Really, On the Face! By Elizabeth Campbell

Third Place         The Retired Toy Maker by Roman Kurniadi

Best Overall

First Place          The Song of the Sea by Mudith Kariyawasam

All of the winners stories can be downloaded and read on our Library website.