The 2020 My Brother Jack Awards were wonderfully supported by the Glen Eira community this year, with more than 600 entries submitted across eight short story and poetry categories.
Thank you to everyone who entered. We look forward to seeing you back again next year.
Congratulations to the following prize winners.
First Prize: Pivot by Deborah Rechter
Second Prize: Into the Inbox by Greg Tantala
Third Prize: Dawn's Story by Clyde Woods
Highly Commended: Tightrope by Dylan Murphy
Highly Commended: Static by Natasha Abrahams
Highly Commended: Hector's Monday by Rosie Martin
Download the Open Short Story — winning stories and Judge’s report.
First Prize: Don't be a Doormat by Sarah Hatigan
Highly Commended: Main Road by Caleb Gering
Download the Senior Secondary Short Story — winning stories and Judge’s report.
First Prize: The Quiet Kid by Imogen Gibson
Highly Commended: When 'It' Came to Stay by Abbie McLeish
Highly Commended: Three Little Pigs and the Homeless Wolf by Nathan Loyer
Download the Junior Secondary Short Story — winning stories and Judge’s report.
First Prize: The Camping Horror Day by Isabella Schneider
Highly Commended: The Old Man: A Short Story by Archie Austin
Highly Commended: Flight by Natalie Grant
Highly Commended: The Connection Bridge by Evelyn Ellett
Download the Primary Short Story — winning stories and Judge’s report.
First Prize: Ribbons by Gayelene Carbis
Second Prize: Fish and Chips in Port Vila by Andrew Harris
Third Prize: Flowers by Gabriella Munoz
Highly commended: Double Take by Sandy Lanteri
Highly Commended: I Hear Laughter by Michael Rickards
Download the Open Poetry — winning poems and Judge’s report.
First Prize: Greece by Stephanie Kondopoulos
Highly Commended: Evolution by Caleb Gering
Download the Senior Secondary Poetry — winning poems and Judge’s report.
First Prize: A Thing of Beauty by Ruby Arnheim
Highly Commended: Words by Maggie Roberts
Highly Commended: And Then… by Jolene Zheng
Download the Junior Secondary Poetry — winning poems and Judge’s report.
First Prize: A Different Holiday by Annabelle Fahey
Highly Commended: Nothing by Zach Verginis
Highly Commended: Mother Nature Tickling My Senses by Srishti Suresh
Highly Commended: Bushfires by Olivia Meszaros
Download the Primary Poetry — winning poems and Judge’s report.
Eliza Henry Jones
Eliza is the author of Ache and In the Quiet and P is for Pearl. Her novels have been shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and have been longlisted in the ABIA, Indie and CBCA Awards. Her work has appeared in places such as The Big Issue, The Guardian, The Age and Country Style. She grew up in Glen Eira and now lives on a little farm in the Yarra Valley.
Annette Trevitt
Annette moved from Sydney to Melbourne to study animation and stayed. She teaches fiction writing in professional writing programmes, and has taught non-fiction, script writing and TV comedy. Her short stories have been broadcast on ABC radio and by the BBC and published in literary magazines and anthologies, including Best Australian Stories and in the Fish Anthology in Ireland.
Angela Meyer
Angela Meyer’s writing has been widely published, including in Best Australian Stories, Island, The Big Issue, The Australian, The Lifted Brow and Kill Your Darlings. A Superior Spectre is her debut novel (Ventura Press, ANZ & Saraband, UK). She has worked in bookstores, as a book reviewer, in a whisky bar, and for the past few years has published a range of Australian authors for Echo Publishing, including award-winners and an international number one bestseller. She lives in Elsternwick.
Alicia Sometimes
Alicia is a poet, writer and broadcaster. She has performed her spoken word and poetry at many venues, festivals and events around the world. Her poems have been in Best Australian Science Writing, Best Australian Poems, Overland, Southerly, Meanjin, ABC TV's Sunday Arts and more. She is a member of the ABC’s Outer Sanctum podcast and is often reviewing books on ABC Melbourne. She is director and co-writer of the science-poetry planetarium shows, Elemental and Particle/Wave. Her TedxUQ talk in 2019 was about the passion of combining art with science.
Ozlem Baro
Ozlem Baro is a poet and photographer. She has performed poetry in Australia, Turkey, Guatemala and Cyprus. Her photos can be found on Instagram and are mostly of her visits to curious places. Ozlem enjoys travelling and recently spent an entire year having adventures in different countries.
My Brother Jack is a novel written by George Johnston, published in 1964. Johnston grew up in Elsternwick, and his mother Minnie was a Voluntary Aid Detachment member during the war.
My Brother Jack is a semi-autobiographical novel that follows the character of David Meredith through his youth in inter-war Melbourne. David’s mother is a VAD at Caulfield Repatriation Hospital on Kooyong Road, and she often brings wounded soldiers into their house. His childhood is filled with injured and traumatised men, and his memories of the hospital are a powerful view of war’s impact through a child’s eyes.
An Australian classic, the novel brought Glen Eira’s post-war experience into the national consciousness. Johnston’s book won the Miles Franklin Award in 1964.
The My Brother Jack Awards, Glen Eira City Council’s annual literary competition, acknowledge the lasting impact of Johnston’s work.
