Third National Republican Short Story Competition Winners Announced – 26 January 2012

In 2011 Australia’s speculative fiction writers were challenged to speculate on the possible futures of the Australian republic using the theme ‘Citizen or Subject’. The 2011 Judging Panel comprised Tom Keneally, Professor John Warhurst and Professor George Williams.

Valda Marshall has been awarded ‘First Prize’ in the Third National Republican Short Story Competition for ‘A Child of the Holocaust’. She is a former journalist and TV writer who has worked in Sydney, Toronto (Canada) and New York. Her television writing credits include Neighbours, and Sons and Daughters. While working with Neighbours, Valda co-authored two books based on the Ramsay Street families: The Ramsays: A Family Divided and The Robinsons: A Family in Crisis. She has been a staunch republican since the 1950s. “I am an absolutely passionate republican,” she said. “At the movies in the 50s, when they played God Save the Queen before a screening, even then I thought, why are we doing this? Why do we have a head of state on the other side of the world?” Her 2010 novel The First President is a story of love and politics in which Australia becomes a republic in 2016. Valda was born in Adelaide and now lives in Sydney.

Richard Johnson has been awarded ‘Second Prize’ in the Third National Republican Short Story Competition for ‘The King and Mister Crow’. He is an ex-Pommie who migrated from the UK in 2001. He works as a structural engineer and has been privileged to work on several iconic building such as Flinders Street Station and the renovation of the GPO. He had had a couple of prior publishing credits, most notable of which is the Gold Award at the Writers of the Future Competition in Hollywood last year, the world’s longest-running and most prestigious competition for amateur writers of science fiction. Richard lives in Melbourne with his wife and four year old son.

Harold Mally has been awarded ‘Third Prize’ in the Third National Republican Short Story Competition for ‘Royalty Reality’. He lives in Sydney and writes short fiction. A number of his stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies such as Blue Crow, Eclecticism, Page Seventeen, Scribe, Narrator, Splatter, 21D, [untitled], The Bridge and The Lightship Anthology. A few have won awards. Many have done nothing at all.

The Third National Republican Short Story Competition has continued to foster the emerging Australian republican fiction genre. Before every great invention and before every great journey is the idea. Without ideas and imagination, we are all trapped in the past. The short stories ‘A Child of the Holocaust’, ‘The King and Mister Crow’, and ‘Royalty Reality’ are exercises in imagination and help to lead the way into possible republican futures.
The Australian Republican Movement congratulates the winners of this year’s competition and extends its thanks to all entrants. The National Republican Short Story Competition will be run again in 2012.

The winning short stories entries were published on the Australian Republican Movement website on 26 January 2012.

For more information contact: Dr Glenn Davies, National Republican Fiction Convener, Australian Republican Movement, PO Box 87, Geebung, QLD, 4034 E: fiction@republic.org.au