Best Australian Yarn: Top 25 stories in youth categories 12-14 and 15-18 revealed

The year is 1942. In Krakow, Poland, 11-year-old Sabina waits impatiently for her father to take her for ice-cream as a reward for doing well at school.

The prospect of the rare treat has kept her going, even through the boredom of waiting in line with her mother to be handed the yellow fabric star all Jews are required to sew on their sleeves.

At a sudden pounding on the door Sabina’s mother drops a dish which shatters as it hits the floor, while her father pushes her towards the hallway, where a ladder leads to the attic.

“Go,” he says urgently. “Go now.”

Eleni Chapman’s short story, Soar, has made it to the The Best Australian Yarn 2023 top 25 in the Youth 12-14 category. The Chisholm Catholic College Year 9 student chose to write a story about the Nazis after her English class was asked to write a short story about conflict.

“The first thing that came to mind was the Nazi occupation of World War II,” Chapman, 14, said. “I had also read many historical fiction (books) and autobiographies on the topic and so was interested in that period of history.”

Books such as Number the Stars by author Lois Lowry and John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas left her thinking way after she finished them, she said, and encouraged her to write her own stories inspired by the historical information she had learnt.

Chapman chose an 11-year-old girl as the main protagonist because she believed it would be thought-provoking to convey the emotions and experiences of the Nazi invasion through the eyes of a child.

“I was hoping that this point of view would encourage people to feel empathy for all the young and innocent children who had to lose some of their childhood because of the hardships they endured during the war.”

Chapman enjoyed researching the Polish language and culture that influences the story.

“One of my friends is Polish and I interviewed her as well as doing some internet research so I could add some touches to the story like the nickname gąsienica, meaning caterpillar,” she said.

Writers from across Australia aged 12 and older submitted a remarkable 5530 entries - almost 20 per cent more than last year - in the second The Best Australian Yarn competition.

After submissions closed in August, judges were kept busy reading each story and reducing numbers to a list of what they believed were the most engaging tales.

Two new prizes — the Navitas English as a Second Language Prize and the First Nations Storytelling Prize — attracted hundreds of contestants.

The Best Australian Yarn, run by The West Australian in partnership with education provider Navitas, encourages professional and amateur short story writers to compete for a $75,000 prize pool, the richest in the world.

Writers on the long lists, including youth authors, now have the opportunity to win the $50,000 major prize.

The winners of the two GenWest youth prizes, supported by the Education Department through the Premier’s Reading Challenge, are awarded $1500 each.

Voting in the $2000 Readers’ Choice Award will be launched on thewest.com.au later this month.

The prize jury is chaired by the Editor-in-Chief of The West Australian, Anthony De Ceglie, and includes authors Robert Drewe and Holden Sheppard and publishers Terri-ann White and Rachel Bin Salleh.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the WA Museum Boola Bardip on Friday, November 24.

Top 25 stories in both youth categories, 12-14 and 15-18, can be read below and on The West Australian’s GenWest website for school students.

TOP 25 YOUTH CATEGORY 12-14

• A New Leaf by Alexander Reed
• Changes in Vita by Olive Maguire Hetherington
• Closure by Cameron Brown
• Death and Love by Ashley Hua
• Deep in the Pond by Thomas Upton
• Grandad’s Farm by Brooke McDougall
• Him by Mythri Sarker
• Journey to the Dark Abyss by Sue Ning Chee
• Lost? by Aimee Chong
• Loved by Abigail Smith
• Marla’s Magic Tree by Lee Sullivan
• Me, Him and the Moon by Suri Zhang
• My Aussie Birthday by Avalea Curtis
• Orange Slices by Ruby Burke
• Red Dirt and Bike Tires by India Baker
• Sing a Song of Sixpence by Rebecca Vos
• Soar by Eleni Chapman
• Soulmates by Sabrina Franco
• That Was That by Matilda Doney
• The Night We Almost Lost Our Job by Sarah Dakin
• Triumph by Beth Swift-Hoadley
• Until it’s All Gone by Siena Southern Broadbent
• Vivianne Delacour’s Blessing by Niharika Garg
• What Death Remembers by Mya Stone
• Woe is the Broken Heart by Matylda Dominikowska

TOP 25 YOUTH CATEGORY 15-18

• A Prayer in the Wind by Indi McClellan
• Beautiful Illusions by Danielle Spencer
• Dandies by Leah Joseph
• David Parramore by Jeremiah Wang
• Echoes of Desolation by Blake Finnie
• Eyes by Cassidy Pole
• Fractured Reflections by Aniela Odgers
• Hallowed Be Thy Name by Adam Considine
• Importance by Isabella Lee-Talbot
• In the Shadows of the Willow Tree by Kaitlin Lim
• Lists by Trisha Prabhu
• Machina Mentis by Chelsea McAuliffe
• Magpie Season by Bethany Stopher
• Mortal Coil by Cora Williamson
• Our Stained Land by Alana Edwards
• Paracetamol by Tailah Clarkson
• School’s Out by Till O’Callaghan
• Shoes to Fill by Oliver Dalton
• Sofiya by Joe Lewis
• Streets by Chelsi Sheridan
• The McGuffin by Andy Sansness
• The Suitcase by Rachel Harris
• Two Bags by Isabella Pearce
• What Are the Odds? by Rowan Faulconer
• What Else Could I Do? by Ashleigh Gurr