Another good year for Sasha

Teenage wordsmith Sasha Finer has won both the secondary school short story and poetry sections at the 2019 Ronald Hugh Morrieson Literary Awards for the third year in a row.

The awards were announced yesterdays at the Hub in Ha¯ wera, where Finer was also placed second in the student poetry section.

Last year, Finer won first and second place in both the secondary school short story and poetry sections. In 2017 she won both the short story and poetry sections, in 2016 she won the short story section and was highly commended in 2015. This year her winning story was called Ghosts.

Second in the secondary school short story was Madeline Symes of Opunake High School with Unfocused Lenses, and third placed was Sam Landers of Ha¯ wera High School with The View. Maddison Cossey with Starry Beach and Ben Smythe, with Going Gone, both of Ha¯ wera High School, were each awarded highly commended.

Finer’s poem Escapism won first place and her poem Decomposition was judged second, while Maddison Cossey was third with The Beach.

Ethan Griffiths of Spotswood College won the secondary school research article section with a piece titled 2050: The Shifting Sands of Taranaki, while Emma Hughes of Taranaki Diocesan was second with Back to the Future and Kaylen Hojdelewicz, from Taranaki Diocesan, was third with We Knew.

The short story open section was won by Pip Harrison of Ha¯ wera with Little One,

James O’Sullivan, New Plymouth, was second with Visiting The Doctor, Mikaela Nyman of New Plymouth came third with Black Sand and last year’s open winner, Bruce Finer of Ha¯wera, was highly commended with Banks’s Holiday Park.

The poetry open section was won by Ken Crawford, Waitara, with Another Parable on the Way of All Flesh, Alyx Devlin of Eltham was second with Red Balloon and she was also third placed with Bitch, please.

Short story judge Dame Fiona Kidman, who was born in Ha¯ wera but left as a baby, said she had enjoyed exploring and learning more about her birthplace through the work of the writers, as well as in person.

esearch article judge Matt Rilkoff said the theme of change dominated this year’s entries, and the need for humans to change how they interact with their environment or risk losing everything. ‘‘The future is ours to control. We are not victims of it.

‘‘This year’s entries do not shy away from that responsibility and in that awareness there is great hope,’’ he said.