Williamstown Literary Festival

This year the stories for the Ada Cambridge Prize and the poems for the Seagull Poetry Prize both appear in one exciting anthology. There are six short listed stories and ten poems including the winners of each competition.

Told with strong arresting voices, the biographical short stories immerse us in the experiences of those living in a cruel and indifferent world, soliciting deep empathy for the characters involved.

In the poems, the theme most often encountered is an engagement with the changing natural world, and the negotiation of the human place within it. Ideas and emotions are effectively conveyed by fresh language, and powerful imagery.

For the third time in the history of the Ada Cambridge, judges could not separate top entrants, awarding joint first prize to VU writing teacher Lucia Nardo for her moving tale of her dying mum amid family dysunction: Things we don't talk about. Former Bosnian refugee Fikret Pajalic of St Albans shared the Bendigo Bank sponsored award for his harrowing account of war torn Yugoslavia in Shades of Grey. For the second year running Amanda Anastasi took out the Seagull Poetry Prize for her spellbinding poem about Queensland's destructive cyclone Yasi.  For a full list of the winners, placegetters and short listed stories published in the anthology, click here.

Books are $8 each and available at any Hobsons Bay Library. If you have any queries, or difficulties getting to a library, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Additional postage costs apply for mail orders.