Stringybark Open Short Story Award 2024

CLOSED

The Stringybark Times Past Award 2019

Competition Closed: 16 June 2019

123 entries.  $1020 in prizes.

Judges: Fiona Hannan, Antoinette Merillees, Julia Robertson and David Vernon

Editor: David Vernon

Cover designer: Jonathan Vernon

Layout: Stringybark Publishing

Australian printer: Prinstant, Canberra

Thirty-two award-winning short stories from the Stringybark 'Times Past' Short Fiction Awards entertainingly brings Australian history to life. From gentlemen bushrangers and destitute children to the impact of The Pill, and women being allowed in pubs, these true stories will delight, challenge and intrigue you. Written by some of Australia's best contemporary short story writers, as well as new and emerging authors, each tale illuminates a neglected part of Australia's history.

When Janine found out a ‘flying trapeze workshop’ was being offered as one of the events at the first ever Sydney Festival, she thanked her lucky stars and expressed her joy with dance… all over the furniture, bouncing around the lounge room like a possum in a cement mixer. The half-filled ashtray and tarot deck went flying across the room as she vaulted over the coffee table, interrupting her flat mate from his studies.

— from Buckley’s Chance by Mark Luntungan

I was seven-years-old when my mother was taken by Death. When the fever came upon her, I lit two candles and placed one on the window sill looking onto the street; the other I placed on the small table by Mother’s bed so that I could see to bathe her face. I was careful to keep it away from the cradle where baby Mary Ann cried and fretted. I had given the baby a rag to suck soaked in a little sugared water, but she would not take it. Her tiny body was burning up too even though the evening was cold.

— from Neglected by Beverley Lello

32 published stories. One e-book and printed anthology, Fault Lines.

Edited by David Vernon, e-book and paperback, Stringybark Publishing,

ISBN: 978-0-6485386-2-2

A$14.95 includes postage within Australia.  Discounts for multiple purchases.  Please enquire for international orders.

THIRD PRIZE

An Editor, December 1954

by

Regan Rist

FIRST PRIZE

Fault Lines

by

Holly Bruce

SECOND PRIZE

Two Leg Trade

by

Shirley Fletcher

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Saving Sarah — Rosemary Argue

The Ploughman  —  Greg Bartlett

The Legacy — Greg Bartlett

Doosia's Choice — Juliet Blair

Rabbits — Colin Campbell

For Valour — Shannon Coyle

Sons of the South — Julie Davies

Requited — Valerie Everett

Double or Nothing — Rod Flanagan

Pay at Reception — Rod Flanagan

A Party with a Purpose — Caryn Jacobs

The Last Tiger — Lucinda Joura

The Swamps in Truro — Petr Joura

Margo — Marion Langford

Neglected — Beverley Lello

The Gentleman Bushranger — Karen Lieversz

Buckley's Chance — Mark Luntungan

Got the Lot — Meg Main

A Perfect Murder — Chris Moss

Setting the Bar — Emma Mulheran

Tears, Fears and Bloody Boots — Jenny Parkes

Horizon — E.B. Richards

The Chicken — Sarah Jane Rutherford

Hail Mary — John Hogan

Lightfoot' Linfoot — Kay Spencer

The Woman on the Wall — Kay Spencer

For Freedom and Honour — Anne Tavares

The Waif Wanderer — Paula Wilson

Dear Grace — Carole Worthy