Wakefield announces YA horror anthology winning submissions
Wakefield Press has announced the winning submissions to its national callout for contributions to its YA fiction anthology Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales.
The four winning stories are:
- An ‘intense, lyrical story about a high-achieving student literally monstered by her anxiety’ by Adelaide YA author Margot McGovern
- A ‘harrowing dive into toxic masculinity and bloody rites in a dystopic future Australia’ by Melbourne queer, nonbinary writer and poet Emma Osborne
- A ‘sly, unsettling, black-humoured tale of ancestral ghosts and the age-old question of what we’ll trade for what we desire’ by Queensland children’s and YA author Marianna Shek
- A ‘visceral howl of teenage angst and rage that literally transforms its protagonist’ by 21-year-old Melbourne screenwriter and horror fan Felix Wilkins.
The Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales anthology is funded by a ‘Create’ grant from the Australia Council’s 2020 Resilience Fund, and also features stories from commissioned contributors Poppy Nwosu, Wai Chim, Sarah Epstein, Alison Evans, Lisa Fuller, Holden Sheppard, Jared Thomas and this year’s CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers winner, Vikki Wakefield.
Anthology editor Nwosu led a panel of Wakefield Press judges through several rounds of judging over 120 stories submitted as part of the publisher’s national call out, including a final ‘blind’ read.
‘We were specifically looking for stories that showcased a strong voice, unique ideas and a horror element that felt intrinsic to the narrative of the piece,’ said Nwosu.
Hometown Haunts will be published on 31 October 2021.
Category: Junior Local news
