This year is the forty year anniversary of the Sydney Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras. To celebrate, we launched an exciting new short story opportunity for all our writers.
And we do mean short! Submitted stories were 40 words or less. Stories could be happy or sad, funny or serious, action-packed or mood pieces. As long as they relate to the theme (as well as the LGBTQIA+ experience) writers had a chance of winning first prize of $200.
The theme for the first Miniature competition was FORTY.
First Prize of $200 — Feeling Forty by Mitchell Sullivan. Mitch is a 32 year old warehouse worker who writes whenever he gets a chance. He’s thrilled to be able to say his first 40 words ever published were in the Miniature competition for OutStanding Stories. He tweets at @mitchsully, and will hopefully have more than forty words published soon! Watch Mitchell reading the story here
Highly Commended $50 – Crush by Emma Lindley. After finishing a PhD in astrophysics, Emma realised what she really wanted to do was teach physics to the next generation. She writes fiction and poetry in her spare time and hopes to eventually write a YA novel about women in love – with a happy ending. Watch Emma reading the story here
Highly Commended $50- Loose Change by Conor Duggan. Hailing from Ireland, Conor came to Australia two years ago and has put his geology degree to use working on gold exploration in the Outback. His weeks off are filled with a combo of writing and roadtrips in his mini-camper van, Michelle. During the latest drive from Perth to Hobart, Conor spent time writing spontaneous fiction which he calls ‘creative journalism’.
Winning entries can be read here
Miniature was made possible thanks to the generosity of our friends at the Aurora Group https://www.auroragroup.com.au