Cat Yen – Winner
SBS Emerging Writers' Competition 2021 winner, Cat Yen Source: Supplied
Cat Yen, 25, works as a data analyst in Naarm/Melbourne. Having completed some journalism internships and editing for an academic journal, her entry into the was remarkably the first literary piece she has ever written.
“This was the first piece I ever finished," she says of her story, ''. "I think I always wanted to write but I always felt that capturing a story is a really important thing and I really wanted to get it right."
Inspired by a break up (“I never thought I would make $5000 from being dumped!"), her entry is a multi-layered story that examines what it’s like to be a first-generation migrant and exist between the worlds of culture, race and also class.
"I don’t think people talk about class a lot and I always felt that if I wrote about my life, it would elicit quite a shocked reaction, and that was not fair," she explains. "People would pity me, or think, 'gosh, she’s gone through so many things'."
Despite reservations, Yen says that writing the story came naturally. "For me, writing always comes from the heart. Some people say writing is a muscle and you should just practice every day. I don’t know if that’s worked out for me. I’ve never really been able to write something I was satisfied with but when I was writing this piece, I felt like I had some kind of faith.
"I was definitely regularly doubting myself, thinking it was terrible, but there were moments where I really thought 'yes', there were some paragraphs...that came so strongly from the heart."
While she doesn’t practice her writing regularly, she is listening to hip hop music, which she credits to her being “attuned to the natural rhythm of words.”
Yen's work is described by judges Tara June Winch and Behrouz Boochani as “masterly storytelling":
“This story manages to wrap a story around a story, the outer incarnation is that of outsiders, of a mother and a father and the things that were broken in the process of creating a family, and the inner heart is a tale of that minor detail of love, of having hope and in being understood. There is an elasticity to the writing - allowing the reader to invest and journey in the story and at the same time be shaken by it's truths, pulled back into the writer's orbit.”
Of the judges' response, Yen, who plans to give the $5000 prize money to her mother, says, "I’ve never really received this sort of feedback. Now I feel like my writing isn’t bad, I feel ok, I would love to be able to write more."
You can read Cat Yen’s winning entry
Maya Hodge – Runner up
SBS Emerging Writers' Competition 2021 runner up, Maya Hodge. Source: Jalaru Photography @jalaruphotography
“I entered the competition because I’d never really told my story before in a writing format," she says of her piece, . "It was an exploration for me personally, and for the women in my family. I thought it was important to record my story down in that long story of women – for my matriarchal line.”
It was after reading Winch’s novel The Yield, that she wanted to honour her own language.
“The inspiration was from Tara herself. I was really transported by her words and really inspired. I’ve been trying to reclaim my own language,” she says. “I was speaking the words of my great-grandmother. That’s what inspired me, my great grandmother and the amazing Blak writers that I read every day.”
To have someone like Winch read her work was a huge thrill for Hodge. "It was just a really wonderful thought that Tara would read my words about Aboriginal women and I would be able to tell her my story like she told her story to me."
As a poet, this was the first time Hodge had written in a memoir format.
“I think it’s hard for people to talk about themselves, let alone write about themselves. So it was a big challenge, but I guess I was honouring my family,” she says.
“And so when I was writing about my story, it was more about them: my brother and my mum. All the people in my family – my aunties and uncles.”
Judges Winch and Boochani describe Maya as an “accomplished and beautiful storyteller."
They “loved the format, the use of language to navigate the story and tie the story together. It’s a delicate and deep feeling where the melding of cultures is subtly explored.”
Currently working as an assistant curator at the Blak Dot Gallery in Naarm, Maya plans to continue writing. “I think I would like to explore writing short stories and one day writing a poetry manuscript. I’m really focused on my writing. It’s something that brings me a lot of joy.”
You can read Maya Hodge’s entry
Arky Michael – Runner up
SBS Emerging Writers' Competition 2021 runner up, Arky Michael. Source: Supplied
After reading about the competition online, he felt compelled to write a story about travelling with his elderly parents to their homeland in Cyprus over a decade ago.
It was there that he sought out a rare delicacy called “ambelopoulia” (a songbird) for his dying father to eat one last time, which ended with him having to catch and slaughter the bird himself.
“The bird that I had to kill has always stayed with me,” he says. “I’ll never forget that feeling of cowardice. So that was the seed and the competition was the impetus and motivation.”
Michael wrote his entry, during Melbourne’s lockdown, while caring for his 90-year-old mother.
“At night time, I would sit down and write some notes, then write a sentence, and eventually I’d have a paragraph,” he says.
The competition judges called his entry a "wonder of a story".
“A startling story of empathy and apathy, of a son and his only father,” they said.
“The lyrical and unique journey was a very moving and heartbreaking read.”
Michael calls judge Behrouz Boochani a personal “hero”, so to hear that feedback gave him “goosebumps.”
Since hearing the news of the award and the $3000 prize, Michael has been feeling “elated and floaty. For someone who’s above 60, you don’t quite expect that.”
To be runner up in an emerging writers’ competition at 61 is a validating experience.
“Society expects you to quieten down. But you know, you can still be vital and vibrant and productive at any age.”
You can read Arky Michael’s entry
Maya Skidmore – Highly Commended
SBS Emerging Writers' Competition 2021 highly commended, Maya Skidmore. Source: Supplied
“My heart was exploding. My head was exploding!” she says of finding out her piece,, had been highly commended and awarded $1000.
The story itself was one year in the making. “My grandmother has been ill,” she explains. “So I’ve been thinking about grief, and thinking about my grandfather’s death when I was a child.
“The first part of the piece started from a dream I had about a year ago, and since my grandmother’s diagnosis, I’ve been working on it.”
For Skidmore, the past year has been punctuated by moments where grief has felt more 'potent'.
“Loss is a big thing in Iranian culture. I wanted to write about those moments and how it is dealt with between the two cultures.”
The competition judges called her story, “a sharp and yet introspective and delicate story of grief and death, and all our gorgeous differences.
“There are displays of literary power and social observation, and yet none of the pretence, nor judgement. A balanced and illuminating story by a talented and promising writer.”
Having recently graduated from the University of NSW, after studying journalism and international relations, Skidmore hopes to gain experience feature writing to “tell the stories of refugees and asylum seekers – especially women.”
You can read Maya Skidmore’s entry
Miranda Jakich – Highly Commended
SBS Emerging Writers' Competition 2021 highly commended, Miranda Jakich. Source: Supplied
Jakich, 68, born to immigrant parents from the former Yugoslavia, began her schooling in Australia without speaking a word of English. Since then, she has worked as an interpreter, a freelance journalist and in the public service, a series of jobs where ‘words always mattered’, before recently retiring.
Her entry '' examines the complex relationship she had with her mother, between the worlds of different homelands.
“I was brought up in my parent’s nostalgic immigrant bubble and denied full participation in the English-speaking world around us. My bumpy struggle for independence and self-identity culminated in flight back to my birth country in 1988,” she says.
For a long time, Jakich wanted to distance herself from her own experiences, and not write about them, so she wrote about other people’s stories through her journalism. It was only when her ageing parents needed help to cope “with their old age and illness” that she re-entered their world.
“This time on my own terms, knowing they could not undo the life I’d created away from them.”
It was then that she began to write about their healing relationship, though it was “only after their passing that I let rip.”
"The story could only be written and shared after my mother passed away in 2018,” Jakich says.
“I wanted to write a story that laid out the effect she had on my life without vilifying her. Writing it is a crucial part of my eternal quest to understand why my mother was the way she was.”
The judges have called Jakich's story, “a stark and intimate portrait of a mother and daughter and of many homelands.
“The story has gorgeous and emotive turns of phrase. The story left me wanting more, to hear more of the complexity of the mother and daughter to return and be at home.”
This is Jakich's second year entering the SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition. Her 2020 story, Fish People, was her first ever published work and was included in the official anthology of the SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition,
