Hildegarde Literary Prize Winners

Congratulations to the winners of our annual writing competition, the Hildegard Literary Prize, announced last week.

This year’s topic was Imagine If , and the judges were thrilled to read many fantastic entries.

The Junior Prize went to Year 9 student Alanis Furtado and runner-up was Year 7 student Freya Fox.

In the Senior category, the winner was Year 12 student Heidi Pardinas with second place going to Year 12 student Darcy Makin.

In the new Staff category, joint winners Daniela Harrington and Eva Davoli took out first prize.

Below are the winning entries and comments from our esteemed judges.

Junior winner, Soggy Oreos by Alanis Furtado (9 Lok-Lok 1)

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In her uniquely titled Soggy Oreos, Alanis has crafted an excellent, well-structured short story following two teenagers in a service station on a gloomy evening. Alanis has made extensive use of her vocabulary to create immersive, believable characters and to describe the physical setting. Her ability to showcase the protagonists’ characteristics via ‘showing’ instead of ‘telling’, in particular, is to be commended. A very well-deserved winner of the junior division of the 2022 Hildegard Literary Award! – Stefan Subasic

Junior Runner Up, Imagine if You Were Me by Freya Fox (7C)

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Freya’s incisive and dark exploration into the mind of 12-year old assassin Sophie is concise and sharply focused. Freya’s writing shows a strong capacity to create texture through careful sentence structures and haunting imagery. Through her observation “Dreams are dreams. Assassins are assassins”, Freya invites her readers to consider how humans sometimes struggle to live up to expectations. An evocative and engaging read. Well done, Freya! – Kezi Todd

Senior Winner, Cinema by Heidi Pardinas (12B)

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Heidi’s cleverly crafted poem Cinema projects her life, which she describes as “those swirling shadows of memory,” onto the imaginary movie screen of her existence, where her life can be played backwards or forwards or just held still in the moment. Heidi’s beautiful metaphor, “playing from the projector of my heart,” captures – with seeming effortlessness – both the “monotone” and the vivid dreams of her “waiting wishes.” The colour, contrast and control of Heidi’s creation makes it a truly well-deserved winner of the 2022 Hildegard Literary Award. Well done, Heidi! – Cyril Fox

Senior Runner Up, Hot Towels by Darcy Makin (12M)

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In his speculative short story Hot Towels, Darcy has interpreted the Imagine if… prompt through two alternate versions of reality. In one, the narrator feels all the beauty and wonder of a world where his loved one still exists, whilst in the other, life is devoid of colour and filled with fear because that person is no longer there. Darcy’s story uses incredible visual, aural and gustatory imagery to describe his narrator’s experiences at both the heights of happiness and the depths of despair. It is a well-constructed and engaging narrative with an ending filled with pathos. Great work, Darcy! – Kezi Todd

Staff winners

Imagine By Me - Daniela Harrington

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Imagine If - Eva Davoli

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