PRIZES were awarded to the winners of the Inverell Shire Council Library’s writing competition, which was recently run in conjunction with the National Year Of Reading and received 35 entries from 17 individuals.
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Library manager Sonya Lange said the competition was overwhelmed with entries.
“I know when I was reading them, I was sitting in my office one day reading all the entries and the staff were listening to me; one minute I was laughing out loud, the next minute I was crying and they were saying ‘What IS going on in there, is it the same story...?” Sonya joked with those gathered to attend the small ceremony.
“I was certainly moved by a number of the pieces. I really enjoyed the results and was very excited about the quality. We’re going to compile them into a book, which were going to have here at the library and make available…there’s some wonderful pieces of work there.”
The competition was organised by information services librarian Maria Mutimer. Maria and Sonya judged the entries and Tess Newmarch from The Dust Jacket who donated her time to make up the third member of the judging panel.
Maria said the competition originally was only going to have a first and second prize.
“Because of the quality of the work…we’re actually going to have a first, second and third place, as well as a first place for poetry and an encouragement award,” Maria said.
The competition’s first prize of a Kindle pack including a cover and charger and a $50 Amazon gift card was won by Mandy McKeesick from Coolatai.
Second prize of a National Year Of Reading gift pack and a gift voucher from Syretts newsagency was taken out by Peter McGregor and Andrew McGregor won the third prize of a notepad and a gift voucher from Syretts Newsagency.
First prize for poetry was won by Lillian Hardie, which was a gift voucher from The Dust Jacket and the poetry encouragement award, a gift voucher from The Dust Jacket, was won by Esther Gardiner.