Final Results of the 2021 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize


Established in 2007 and supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, Overland Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize seeks powerful and original short fiction of up to 3000 words themed loosely around the notion of ‘travel’.

This year’s wonderful judges, Julie Koh, Alice Robinson and Mykaela Saunders, rose to the challenging task of selecting  shortlist of eight pieces from over 400 etries.

First place receives $5000 and two runners-up receive $750 each. Overland will publish the winning story and judges’ notes in our autumn 2022 edition, with the two runner-up stories published online.

Overland, the judges and the Malcolm Robertson Foundation are thrilled to announce the final results of the 2021 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize.

First place ($5000)

Saraid Taylor

‘the labeller’

A young athlete uses a gift from her aunt to tame the world around her.

The daughter of two charity-founders, Saraid Taylor is a writer, poet and athlete who grew up on Wurundjeri land. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Screenwriting) from the Victorian College of the Arts, the University of Melbourne. Her work has recently been shortlisted for the Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing, the Djillong Short Story Competition and the Alan Marshall Short Story Prize. You can find her at: www.saraidtaylor.com.

Runner-up ($750)

Miriam Webster

‘New Directions in Anthropomorphism’

A writer contemplates ecology, a short-finned eel races toward extinction, and a psychoanalyst gives the talking cure to a grieving marine biologist, in this polyvocal story within a story.

Miriam Webster lives in Naarm/Melbourne. She thinks and writes on what is funny and moving about love’s complications, millennial dread, and the sometimes unbearable torment of living. She has almost finished a Master of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing at the University of Melbourne.

Runner-up ($750)

Mikee Donato Sto Domingo

‘Bite the Hand’

Amid a global mass extinction event and imminent ecological collapse, passengers onboard a luxury cruise ship visit Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

Mikee Sto Domingo is a Filipino-New Zealander currently living in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara. She has a BA in English Literature from Victoria University and an MA from the IIML. Her work has been published in TurbineNewsroom, and A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand.

 

new-MRF-logo-2015-300x221The Neilma Sidney Prize is supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation

 

 

Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places.

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