My Brother Jack Award 2022 winners

Congratulations to the following prize winners and commendations.

Open Short Story 

First Prize: Joanne by James Hughes
Second Prize: The Shadows in your Face by Peter Farrar
Third Prize: Grace by Ellen Coates
Highly Commended: Walker Street by Lucy Cleeve
Highly Commended: Growing Pains by Alyce Adams

Judge: Angela Meyer Open Short Story Judge's report

Senior Secondary Short Story 

First Prize: My Brother Jack by Silene Lebeau
Highly Commended: The Macbeth Maiden by Claudia Hopkins

Judge: Annette Trevitt Senior Secondary Short Story Judge's report 

Junior Secondary Short Story 

First Prize: The Kingdom of the Night by Milja Lin
Highly Commended: The Baggy Green in my Dreams by Asher New
Highly Commended: Words don't Hurt Wolf by Isabella Schneider

Judge: Annette Trevitt Junior Secondary Short Story Judge's Report

Primary School Short Story 

Judge: Eliza Henry-Jones

First Prize: Colourful Day by Lindsay Ryan
Highly Commended: Darkseeker Level 1 by James Lipchin
Highly Commended: The Last Fight by Coles Rathgen
Highly Commended: Strange Town by Evelyn Zhou

Primary Short Story Judge's Report - Eliza Henry-Jones

Open Poetry 

Judge: Alicia Sometimes

First Prize: Outback Birth by Ralph Genende
Second Prize: Sub Way by Alexandra Phelan
Third Prize: every poem, an attempt by Phoebe Siobhan Thompson
Highly commended:  Trampoline by Sandra Lanteri
Highly Commended: Memo by James Hughes

Open Poetry Judge's Report - Alicia Sometimes

Senior Secondary Poetry 

Judge: Alicia Sometimes

First Prize: Snö by Selina Richter
Highly Commended: Can I Sleep in your Skin Tonight? by Liv Mutch

Senior Secondary Judge's Report - Alicia Sometimes

Junior Secondary Poetry 

Judge: Alicia Sometimes

First Prize: Resist by Lucy Wiesner
Highly Commended: My Friend... by Jolene Zheng
Highly Commended: Motorcycling in Hanoi by Linh Nguyen

Junior Secondary Judge's Report - Alicia Sometimes

Primary Poetry 

Judge: Ozlem Baro

First Prize: Monster under my Bed by Josh Ooi
Highly Commended: Depression by Jasper Grimwade
Highly Commended: Head in the Clouds by Kian Ptok
Highly Commended: Basketball  by Hunter Nelson

Primary Poetry Judge's Report - Ozlem Baro

Judges’ Biographies

Eliza Henry Jones
Eliza grew up in Glen Eira and is the author of the adult novels Ache and In the Quiet and the YA novels P is for Pearl and How to Grow a Family Tree. Her novels have been listed for the QLD Literary Awards, NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, ABIA, Indie and CBCA Awards. Her work has appeared in places such as The Big Issue, The Guardian, The Age and Country Style. She is currently working towards a PhD in creative writing. In 2022, Eliza released her novel, Salt and Skin – an evocative tale set in the haunted landscape of the islands off the Scottish coast.

Paul Dalgarno
Paul is an author and journalist. He was deputy editor of The Conversation (Australia) and a senior writer and features editor at The Herald newspaper group (UK). He has written for The Guardian, Big Issue Scotland, and Australian Book Review. He is the author of And You May Find Yourself and Poly. His latest novel, A Country of Eternal Light was recently shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year. Born and raised in Scotland, Paul has lived in Australia since 2010. 

Angela Meyer
Angela Meyer’s debut novel, A Superior Spectre, was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award, the MUD Literary Prize, an ABIA, the Readings Prize for New Australian Writing and a Saltire Award (Scotland). Her novella, Joan Smokes, won the inaugural Mslexia Novella Award (UK). Her work has been widely published in magazines, journals and newspapers, and she has worked as a bookseller, book reviewer, commissioning editor and publisher. Her latest novel, Moon Sugar, has just been released – a life-affirming magical novel that sees two people travel to Berlin together to piece together the final days of a mysteriously missing friend.

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.