A first-time entrant drawing on her rural childhood, carving out a few stolen minutes to write each night between family and work, study and the thousand other committments of modern life, and an amateur actor and teacher leaning on history and his passion for a story well told, have emerged from a sea of unique voices in this year's Newcastle Herald story story prize.
Nicole Jones' nostalgic and moving meditation on a rural family living by the rain gauge in Children of Dust has won the Herald's 2024 competition, noted for its authenticity of voice and genuine portrait of country life.
Mrs Jones, who has a degree in music from 2014 and started a second round of study in nursing in 2023, began writing as a way of capturing her memories from childhood, growing up in central-west NSW.
"I grew up at Bogan Gate," she said, "Point at the middle of the state and it's about there. A lot of my childhood was severely drought-affected and it's only in my adult life that I'm kind of exploring that and making sense of it in my own mind.
"I've been writing things that I remember from my childhood - things that stuck with me, like that memory of mum running outside to dance in the rain and us kids wondering what was going on.
"I feel like, for the kids who grew up in that generation, there was a lot of talk about farmers and mental health, but I never heard anyone talking about the children and how they were doing. That has been something I've been reflecting on."
Mrs Jones' depiction of a family bonded by the constant, hanging dread of "the big stress", where the scale of their lives is measured in millimetres of rainfall, blends the duelling emotions of a country family torn between constant concern and moments of real joy.
"Bearing adult responsibilities that weren't ours is kind of normal for farm kids," Mrs Jones said, "But looking back, I think it was such a unique way to grow up."
Judges were highly commending of teacher and actor Derek Fisher's unique style and voice in Scars Rising as he grappled with the age-old writer's conundrum of who gets to tell the story. Fisher's near-Brechtian disdain for any kind of formal conceit, peppering his writing with asides and breaks, showed a concern for culture and history, leaning into the prompting photograph of a sunset over Merewether Baths.
Mr Fisher has entered annually for almost a decade and has been published for the last four years running.
"That's what I love about the competition," he said, "Even though my process is very similar, what we can actually produced has been quite varied.
"The idea of the competition at all is brilliant because it lets you see what happens. It doesn't matter whether its writing or music or poetry, whatever it is, the act of creating is the ultimate thing. And if you're creating, you're not destroying."
