Creative Writing

We hope that it has been a restorative break for all our SCEGGS families and that the time out of the classroom may have offered students time for other creative pursuits and hobbies.  In an upcoming article for the English Teachers’ publication mETAphor, one of our Senior English teachers, Dr Nina Cook, has written about our new Year 10 unit on place and how in a post-pandemic world she sees connection to place as a remedy for the disconnect that many feel. She writes about how “I thought about Romantic, ‘sublime’ responses to the world: being emotionally overwhelmed by the awe and wonder of the natural landscape and the imaginative and transformative reliving of this through verse. In The Luminous Solution by Charlotte Wood, she calls this ‘the rapture.’”

The Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Competition is one which has its foundations in this kind of rapture in the Australian landscape. Hopefully many of us have been able to experience this over the holidays as we have been able to travel around our beautiful country again! In their English classrooms this term, students will have the opportunity to craft a range of creative and analytical responses and may consider submitting their work for one of the competitions below. From Week 2, we also look forward to seeing any keen writers join our Creative Writers’ group on Tuesday lunchtimes in C6.

Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Competition

This is one of the most prestigious Australian Poetry Competitions for school aged students. The theme for the competition this year is “In my Opinion.” Many fabulous resources and past winners of the competition can be found here. The school has registered for this competition, so please contact your class teacher if you would like to submit your poetry. Open now until 30 June 2022.

What Matters Writing Competition

A national writing competition which encourages students to write reflectively and persuasively about topics which they are passionate about. Again, a wide range of resources are available on the website. Open now until 6 May 2022.

Inner West Young Creatives Awards

Limited to students from the Inner West, these awards offer a range of creative opportunities for students. Open now until 31 July 2022.

Jennifer Bean
Head of English