Robert B. Shaw’s poem “Happenstance” begins with an anecdote that sounds like an urban (in this case, rural) legend. Two sisters live forty miles apart somewhere in the Midwest. Each decides to visit the other without calling ahead. Midway, they crash head-on and both are killed. Shaw’s speaker tells us he learned the news from a “country newspaper” read on his uncle’s farm:
One of the unexpected gifts of being young and working as a newspaper reporter was the giddy sensation of being thrown into life and finally mistaken for an adult. Some of the one-time abstractions – murder, suicide, cancer – become real. Once you’ve interviewed the parents of a six-year-old butchered by a teenage pedophile, or seen the body of a farmer who committed suicide by drinking a can of red paint, the world is a different place, radically contingent, and you know people are capable of any foolishness or depravity. I can’t think of a more well-rounded education, besides combat.
Robert B. Shaw’s poem “Happenstance”
NYTBR 10 Best Books of 2023
Lots of 'best-of-the-year'-lists are coming out -- hey, it's almost December, after all -- including now The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2023
I've only seen one of these -- the Maylis de Kerangal, which I do hope to get to.
‘Awed by the talent’: Winners of the Sydney Morning Herald Essay Prize revealed
Libraries and language are at the heart of the two entries that have won The Sydney Morning Herald’s inaugural essay competition for young writers.
Flynn Shan Benson, 24, a recent graduate in international politics and English from the University of Sydney, won the 19-24 age category (up to 2000 words) with his essay about language and power titled Our Language; Or, How to Say Shibboleth in an Australian Accent.
Dayeon Seo’s essay about the plight of modern migration, Liminal Spaces: Between Domestic and International Students, ‘Permanently Temporary’ Residents Forever in Limbo, and Adam Gottschalk call to climate action, Careering, were named as runners-up.
Guest judge Tara June Winch, the Miles Franklin Award-winning author of The Yield, said Benson’s essay was a pertinent meditation on the gatekeeping of language. “A writer that can draw from the past to talk about the present, and hold hope for the future in measured arguments is a skilled craftsman,” Winch said.
Benson said he had long been fascinated with learning languages and drew on his experience of living in Taiwan and studying Chinese for his essay.
Eliza Hoh won the 14-18 age category of the SMH Essay Prize. CREDIT: LOUIE DOUVIS “You never feel your nationality as much as when you’re overseas. Constantly introducing myself as Australian made me think about the strangeness of Australian English: I like it as much as anybody, but it’s stranded between the UK and the US, without authority or prestige,” he said. Eliza Hoh, 17, who this year finished year 12 at St George Girls High School, won the 14-18 age category (up to 800 words) with her essay that celebrates public libraries, Can I Please Borrow A Million Dollars? Olivia Kent’s essay on the disparities in women’s healthcare and Preethika Mathan’s essay on leadership were named as runners-up.
“Eliza Hoh’s essay is a great argument for the continued support of public libraries. Hoh’s beautiful writing has the ability to place herself, and her community, in relation to the benefits of libraries through an anticipated nostalgia,” Winch said.
Hoh, who is set to study high school education at university next year, said she would love to work as a teaching artist at a theatre company, or as a playwright, in the future. “I’ve lived in Sydney my whole life, and as I reached the end of my HSC year, I thought about all the different educational and personal milestones I reached within library walls,” Hoh said. “I’ve watched the world change and develop, with libraries remaining an ever-evolving haven for myself and countless others. Libraries will always be needed by communities, and I hope that my essay helps people understand their importance.” Entrants had three essay topics to choose from and both winners responded to the question: What makes you optimistic about the future of Sydney or NSW?
The winners will each receive $1000 – courtesy of Dymocks Books and Tutoring – and their essays will be published in the Herald. They will also receive digital subscriptions to the Herald, a tour of the newsroom, and a chance to pitch four additional pieces for publication.
The runners-up in each age category will receive $500 and a 12-month digital subscription. Herald editor Bevan Shields said he was impressed by the originality and skill on display in the winning essays. “I’m looking forward to sharing Eliza and Flynn’s thoughtful and engaging essays with our readers in the future. I hope it won’t be the last time we see their bylines in our masthead,” Shields said. “We were awed by the talent of the young writers who entered the first year of this important prize, many of whom no doubt have bright futures in words ahead of them.”
