A self-proclaimed book worm, who loves reading, Cassilis farmer Shelley Piper wanted to flip the script and show that farmers are more than just "muddy gumboots and overalls" when she wrote her first short story and entered it into this year's Scone Literary Festival.
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Her poignant tale about the 2017 Sir Ivan bushfire that wiped out her family's beef cattle property, went on to win 2022 Farmers' Short Story writing competition.
"Farmers are often stereotyped into the muddy gumboots and overalls image, but there are so many smart, creative and talented farmers out there, and this competition was one way to showcase this," Shelley said.
The 2022 Farmers' Short Story writing competition - with a first prize of $1000 - attracted very high quality entries that the judges described as "powerful, well written, lively, entertaining and interesting," Scone Literary Festival president Janie Jordan said.
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The Farmers' Short Story writing competition started in 2020 to focus on the farming community and highlight its creativity to build on the rich literary heritage of the Upper Hunter.
This year's competition was also extended across the Upper Hunter state electorate.
Shelley's story entitled "The Birds & The Blaze" captured the raw detail of the fires with "real feeling ... raw emotion ... well written" said the judges, chaired by John O'Brien, Executive Director, Arts Upper Hunter.
Second prize went to Marina Lee-Warner for "Life of Brian", with third prize shared between Bill Moses for his prose, "The Magic of Water" and Shirley Watson for her story, 'Keep Looking Up'.
Such was the quality of the entries that the judges also awarded a Highly Commended to Therese Ralston for her "Blackberries & Black Times".
New sponsor, Scone Equine Group (SEG), Australia's largest provider of equine veterinary services said they were thrilled to support such a "prestigious, local event" and proud to reward the creativity of the farming community.
The prize winners will receive their awards at the Scone Literary Festival's Patrick White Oration event tonight, Saturday, November 12. Where influential Australian, Wendy McCarthy, AO was to keynote speaker.
The festival commitee hoped that short story writing competition would inspire a new generation of successful regional writers to follow in the footsteps of noted writers such as Barbara Baynton, born in Scone and noted for her short stories, Judith Wright and even Patrick White, Australia's only Nobel Laureate for Literature, a member of the White family of Belltrees fame.
