By Victoria Stone-Meadows
THE winners of the 2016 Fresh Words Young Writers Competition hosted by Casey City Council have been announced.
More than 100 entries were received by council this year in the competition, open to students in all levels of secondary school.
The competition winners and finalists were announced on Wednesday 30 November at a ceremony where City of Casey Mayor Cr Sam Aziz passed on his congratulations.
“Thanks to everyone who put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and shared their stories and poems – which can be a daunting thing to do particularly when it’s going to be judged,” he said.
“Council received so many wonderful entries which were engaging, inspiring, entertaining and captured the imagination of our judges.”
The competition categories included creative writing, poetry and lyrics, and English as a second language.
Cr Aziz said he was very pleased to see the young people of Casey engaging in long form writing.
“In a time when creativity, opinions and thoughts are often expressed in no more than a few words or sentences on social media, it’s refreshing to see we’ve got so many young people in Casey who love to write and exercise their creative flair through writing, poetry and lyrics,” he said.
“Council is proud to be able to celebrate and recognise the talents of our young people through this competition and encourage you all to continue to tell your stories and refine your craft.”
The winners of the 2016 Fresh Words Young Writers Competition are:
Creative writing
Years 7 and 8: Maneesha Casey, Casey Grammar School
Years 9 and 10: Jennifer Nguyen, Nossal High School
Years 11 and 12: Obed Wallis, Waverley Christian College
Poetry and Lyrics
Years 7 and 8: Marina Zakary, Waverley Christian College
Years 9 and 10: Jennifer Nguyen, Nossal High School
Years 11 and 12: Samantha Lane, Berwick College
English as a Second Language
Murtaza Hassan, Cranbourne Secondary College
