Hicks wins inaugural SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition

Papua New Guinean–Australian digital content maker, writer, director and producer Alana Hicks has won the inaugural SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition.

Hicks’s entry was chosen as the winner from more than 2000 submissions on the topic of ‘‘Growing up in diverse Australia’. Hicks is awarded $5000. Runner up Nadia Johansen receives $3000, while entries by Amy Duong and Nakul Legha were highly commended.

Author and judge Melissa Lucashenko said the winning entry showed a ‘joyful defiance and strength’. ‘Judges were looking for courageous and original voices, writing with a sharp take on modern Australian life, and with nuanced views on our multicultural realities. The mix was so powerful and so striking that choosing the shortlist was a real problem. The winners stood out from an exceptional field. We are proud to award them their prizes, and eager to read their future work.’ Lucashenko’s fellow judge Benjamin Law said Hicks’s was ‘one of those stories that makes you tingle, knowing you’re reading an important new voice in Australian writing’.

Hicks said she was excited and humbled to win. ‘It is essential that there are platforms for people from under-represented demographics to explore and express themselves,’ she said. ‘If those platforms are not available or not made available to those people, we will miss out on a massive proportion of fundamental stories.’

An initiative of SBS Voices, the aim of the competition is to support the discovery and development of emerging talent that reflect the diversity of contemporary Australia, providing a platform to share diverse experiences and perspectives.

All four winning and commended pieces are now published on SBS Voices. For more information see the SBS Voices website.

Pictured clockwise from top left: Alana Hicks, Nadia Johansen, Nakul Legha and Amy Duong.

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Category: Local news