My story ‘Walk Beside Me’ has won the inaugural Lane Cove Literary Award (Short Story), presented to me at a packed ceremony in Lane Cove Library on October 29.

Award judge Jeni Mawter said ‘Walk Beside Me’ wove all the essential elements of a great short story through its narrative in a beautiful way.

The voice of the main character, Sam, was delightful and absolutely refreshing, she said.

‘He has a very quirky style and use of language in the way he constructs sentences. Many times it’s a stream of consciousness where we get into Sam’s head. We have great affection for this character. But really it reminded me of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. Because we have the character of Sam, who is low socio-economic white boy, in a friendship group in an indigenous community and, in his naïve way, he reflects on, and you see, issues in the indigenous community population. It’s all coming through Sam and his great naivety.

‘So Marjorie captured dialogue and communication. She also captured the joy and exuberance of being a 10-year-old boy. And there was such a delight in that! I have many times spoken with Jackie French, one of Australia’s best writers, and Jackie has always said joy is the hardest thing to capture. So when I see it, and I see it done so well, I felt it definitely deserved the award.’

Ms Mawter, who is an author, NSW Premier Awards literary judge, creative writing teacher and motivational speaker, said that while it was daunting to read the nearly 300 short story award entries, it was also often thrilling.

‘There is such pleasure at reading a story and it stays with you. And when a story lingers, and worries at you, or works at you, or comes back at you, you know that’s a really great story. And that happened many times.’

The Mayor of Lane Cove, Councillor David Brooks-Horn, said the council was pleased the awards (across five categories) had attracted 560 entries from all Australian states and territories and was proud to boast that the library had the highest borrowing rate per capita of any library in New South Wales.

Award winners in four other categories judged by author and comedian Simon Kennedy were: Patrick Clinen (Waterbrook Poetry Prize), Elisabeth Hanscombe (Memoir Prize), Elaine Fung (Conveyancing Headquarters Lane Cove Resident Prize) and Feiya Zhang (Lane Cove Market Square Youth Prize).

Thanks Lane Cove Council and judge Jeni Mawter

I’m really proud to receive this award from Lane Cove Council and applaud the writers shortlisted for this and other categories.

As Ms Mawter said, it was no mean feat to make the shortlist for the Short Story award as the standard of entries was very high. She has been a judge for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards (2012 to 2014), and Chair of the panel for the Ethel Turner Prize for Young Adult Literature, which, she said, provided her with a baseline against which to measure the quality of the entries.

She said she had also taught Writing for Young Adults and Children as part of the Master’s programs at both Sydney University and Macquarie University and believed a number of Lane Cove Literary Award entries would have been awarded a High Distinction in these programs.

Ms Mawter is a Lane Cove resident whose literary contribution to the community is honoured in the form of a Cultural Blade outside the library building. She is well known as J.A. Mawter, is the popular children’s author of the ‘So’ series: So Gross!, So Feral!, So Sick!, So Festy!, So Grotty! and So Stinky! (HarperCollins Publishers Australia) as well as the Freewheelers series: Unleashed!, Launched! and Extreme! (HarperCollins Publishers Australia). She has also published picture books and fiction, non-fiction, poetry and verse narrative for the education market.

Simon Kennedy is also a Lane Cove resident whose memoir 9/11 and the Art of Happiness: An Australian Story was published by Finch Publishing earlier this year. Mr Kennedy’s mum, Yvonne, was one of 10 Australians to die during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the only one to die outside of New York, in the attack on the Pentagon.

About ‘Walk Beside Me’

Pulsating cicadas on the Greek Island of Samos in the summer of 2013 catapulted me back to an Aboriginal community I’d visited in the ’90s as a journalist. Reimagined, this community became the story’s setting and the small boy at its heart crept out of the shadows.

Sam’s voice came to me quickly and I knew enough not to be scared of its innocence. I also knew his narrative needed to express the joys of childhood and demonstrate how children make friends and depend on one another across racial divides.

I still cry every time I read ‘Walk Beside Me’ and take this to be a good sign. As the poet Robert Frost said, ‘No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.’ And I do think Australia’s treatment of its indigenous and other vulnerable people needs to be grieved and more adequately addressed.

The story is very special to me, so I am quietly hopeful this award will help it to find the perfect place to be published soon.