Charlotte of Year 12 wins major poetry prize
06 Sep 2016
韩国AV Year 12 student Charlotte has been announced as winner of the John Marsden and Hachette Australia Poetry Prize for Young Writers at Melbourne Writers Festival.
She was one of 15 to be shortlisted from 250 secondary school entrants, and on Thursday 1 September, 2016 was flown to Melbourne for a workshop with award-winning author John Phelan and the prize announcement.
While Charlotte has written short stories for years, she has only recently developed a penchant for poetry. In 2015, she was State Winner for the Somerset National Novella Writing Competition, and in 2012, came second in the Women in Publishing Society Hong Kong short story competition.
“Poetry is really beautiful in that it communicates so much with so little,” Charlotte says. “It’s cathartic: you work through your emotions and release stress. Good poetry makes you feel understood and great poetry is like having a conversation.”
Contemporary American poet Richard Silken’s poetry collection Crush, inspired Charlotte’s prize-winning work. Her poem, Clarity, will be published alongside works of her fellow prize-winners in an upcoming edition of Express Media’s publication Voiceworks.