‘Oh, that’s OK’: Emma Philips on writing a winning short story

“It’s literally right there in front of you; we had Cyclone Gabrielle as well. Climate change has always been something that’s imminent but now it’s something present.”

Emma Philips is describing how she wrote her award-winning story, and the tale is fantastic.

Both are fantastic. The story, Changing Landscapes, won the secondary school division in the Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards 2023; the tale about its creation is just as good.

Philips was studying for her final college exams when she saw the competition; thought she should enter; checked the deadline and realised she didn’t have much time.

“So I had a look on my drive to see if there was anything there I could work on – I’ve always got some unfinished bits – and I sort of put all these mismatched things together and thought ‘oh that’s OK’.”

And it was, obviously. Told in a series of vignettes topped by the names, artists and dates of famous paintings, the story is described by judge Bernard Steed as vividly evoking the threat posed by a changing climate.

Of those paintings - or sub-headings - Steed says: “Van Gogh’s The Starry Night becomes Auckland in a clattering thunderstorm; Constable’s The Hay Wain becomes a hay-baling scene on a sodden Northland dairy farm.”

Philips says of the same: “I haven’t written a lot of long prose so I was trying to make it work. I wasn’t fully comfortable with the format so tried to break it up into bits.

“It adds context, this idea of these landscapes that may not be there any more.”

In last year’s competition, the secondary school division was for the first time given a theme for entries.

Sponsored by the Milford Foundation, young writers were challenged to incorporate themes of the environment, the effect of climate change on the environment and how the world may look for their generation in the future.

For Philips, who grew up in a Northland sea-level town, the effect of climate change has been all too obvious.

“It’s literally right there in front of you; we had Cyclone Gabrielle as well. Climate change has always been something that’s imminent but now it’s something present.”

Having last year graduated from Ruawai College and spent the summer working as a library intern, Philips is about to start studying physics at the University of Auckland.

It was a toss-up between that and journalism, she says, though “you can’t be a scientist as a hobby, but you can do it the other way around with writing”.

As for her writing, she’s been doing it for as long as she can remember. Typically, she sits at her desk; usually, the first draft is done by hand in a notebook.

“If you do it by computer you keep editing it as you go, getting caught up on all the red lines and suggestions, and it stops the flow.

“If you do it by hand you just have to do it... You at least wind up with something.”

Then, she plugs it into a file, editing as she goes, and leaves it for a week before returning for another going over.

But it doesn’t always work. Although Philips has had pieces published in journals and collections, she’s entered far many more that haven’t been.

“I could paper my walls with rejection letters but I kind of like the criticism, it’s really important. You can’t get better if you don’t know what you’re doing wrong.”

“Also, a lot of places in New Zealand will send back actually really constructive criticism and I’ve been amazed by that, how they take the time.

“Everyone here is really supportive and positive, even if they don’t want what you’ve written.”

This time though, was different. Of more than 80 entries in the category, Steed ended up with a long-list of 18 and a short-list of six: “All accomplished stories in their own right.

“It’s an accomplishment to have entered, and to have made the short-list. I hope all of these authors continue to write, if that’s what they want... (and recognising that most New Zealand authors pursue fiction alongside another career).” Philips does, and will.

“I was so shocked because the Sunday Star-Times competition is one of the big ones. Some of the winners are the big names too; Eleanor Catton has won it, and it’s amazing to think I may be up there too.”

And for other young writers debating whether to try launching their words, a bit of advice: “Keep writing, If you want to write and want it published then go for it. You only live once, so just send it away and see how it goes.”