Welcome to the Olga Masters Short Story Award
2018 brings exciting news to the Olga Masters Short Story Award, with the continued assistance of the Masters family, the Award will now be administered by South East Arts, our regional arts development organisation.
Stay tuned for entry details and dates, coming soon!
Sign up for the South East Arts newsletter to stay up to date.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thanks to our 2017 judges Geordie Williamson, D’Arcy Randall and Craig Munro
Our 2017 winner, for the second time, is Kit Scriven of Kyneton, VIC, for ‘He cannot dream a river‘. Kit wins $1500 and his story will be published in ‘Island’ magazine.
The judges said, An elderly man quietly tends his dying wife, while his robust imagination recalls and directs her in one dream world after another. Right from the start, this story conjures a bold and unsettling vision of love’s creative power at the end of a long life.
There were two highly commended stories: ‘The bathers‘ by Rebecca Slater of Drummoyne, NSW, and ‘Going it alone‘ by Sue Hurley of Vaucluse, NSW.
Judges’ comments:
Finding friendship beyond the racial edge that cleaves their small community, two teenage girls journey together into the bush to swim in a cool creek as they explore a growing attraction for each other in The Bathers, a beautifully poised story that flares with longing and crackles with life.
and
With the emotional force of a novel, Going it Alone explores a young woman’s readings and misreadings of the human heart during her first serious romance.
Rebecca and Sue both win $500.
The judges said that there were several eminently publishable stories in this year’s entries. Comments on the winning stories will be available soon.
The inaugural Award was held in conjunction with the Olga Masters Festival in Cobargo in October 2014. Read all winning stories.
Thanks to The Triangle, the Cobargo community newspaper, for auspicing the Award in the past, and to Well Thumbed Books in Cobargo for providing a physical space to administer the Award in the past.
The Olga Masters Short Story Award also thanks the Bokhara Foundation and the Masters family for their financial support.