I’m pleased to announce that my short story, Bibi’s Tree, has won first place in the 2009 Katharine Susannah Prichard Open Awards.
I am still absolutely thrilled. I may have both squealed and performed the writer-happy dance when I received the phone call. Below are the notes on Bibi’s Tree from the judge of the awards, Professor Brian Dibble from Curtain University:
“An exotic setting and a stylised tale more mystical than romantic: young Aaliyah communes one last time with her grandmother Bibi who is slowly but inexorably dying under a baobab tree as Aaliyah’s mother prays for Bibi to die since her end is at hand. It is a moving tale about the stories women hand down to each other through their generations.”
The official presentations were held last Sunday at the KSP Writer’s Centre in Western Australia. I wish that I could have been there as part of the presentation was a short reading from the winning stories. It was the first time that any of my work has been read to an audience and I would have loved to have watched the audience’s reactions to my story.
As I didn’t get to show my gratitude at the presentations, I would like to thank the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre for the opportunity and for reading an extract of Bibi’s Tree in my absence. Also another big thank you to my wonderful writer’s group, for reading the many drafts of this story and keeping me sane.
That's HUGE Kathleen! Again, congrats. Brilliant judge comments too – the short story sounds beautiful (exotic location, too).I'm guessing you noticed that Nike Bourke had a story commended in the same comp
Wow. Go girl!Katherine
Thanks Katherine. Nike taught me writing at QUT, so I owe a lot to her
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