Winners of the Overland Story Wine Prize
It’s our great pleasure to announce the winners of the inaugural Overland Story Wine Prize:
First place: ‘That inward eye’ by Leah Swann
Runner-up: ‘I thought maybe I could be a lounge singer’ by Lauren Aimee Curtis
Runner-up: ‘6pm Saturday night’ by Sally Breen
‘One of the strengths of the short story form,’ the judges Clare Strahan, Paddy O’Reilly and Campbell Mattinson write, ‘is its ability to accommodate experimentation and risk while providing a satisfying reading experience; this strength also makes judging one story against another a difficult task.’
Leah Swann’s one-sentence story was the unanimous choice as winner, because of its ‘joyous celebration of the inner life – observation, memory and a profound appreciation of beauty intertwined in a technically impressive single sentence of 585 words.’ It’s a story, the judges say, ‘that will reward multiple readings’.
‘That inward eye’ has won $3000 and publication in the next issue of Overland (out in mid-November), as well as on the label of a 2015 vintage Story Wines Shiraz. ‘I thought maybe I could be a lounge singer’ and ‘6pm Saturday night’ will each receive $500 and be published on Overland in mid-November, to coincide with the publication of our last issue for 2014.