Mark Smith has won the joanne burns Award for “10.42 to Sydenham”, a short-short story, told from the perspective of an African migrant, about a girl being bullied on a train.

The joanne burns Award is a micro-fiction and prose poem competition for works of up to 800 words. joanne burns is one of Australia’s leading poets, who has had more than a dozen books of poetry published since 1972 and who has written extensively in prose poem/micro-fiction forms.

In 2013, the award was judged by Shady Cosgrove (pictured), who teaches Creative Writing at the University of Wollongong and whose most recent novel, What the Ground Can’t Hold, was released last August.

Ms Cosgrove said Mark Smith’s award-winning piece used tight, controlled language to expertly lead the reader through the shifting loyalties of the story.

Of the two runners-up, she said:

• “happy” by Hilary Hewitt “tackles consumerism, waste, communism, infanticide and poverty in thirteen lines and the reader wants more”, and
• “cities that are not dublin” by Mark Roberts gave “a wonderful sense of Australia answering back to the colonial canon”.

Ms Cosgrove said the core strength of the three winning pieces was that the characters were both personal and universal. “We’re taken beyond ourselves and, in that process, recognise ourselves,” she said.

Authors long-listed for the award will be published in Spineless Wonders’ upcoming prose poem/micro-fiction anthology, Writing To The Edge.

Publisher, Bronwyn Mehan, says the anthology is due out in May 2014 and “It will be a corker”.

My story “Pelts” was long-listed for the award and an author Q & A with me about inspiration for the story will be published on the Spineless Wonders website soon.

The Writing to the Edge anthology will be available through the Spineless Wonders website, a range of ebook platforms and independent booksellers in May.

For further information about this and other writing awards see the Spineless Wonders website or Facebook page.