In 2018, over 720 secondary school students from across Australia entered The John Marsden & Hachette Australia Prize for Young Writers. Fifteen talented young students made it on to the shortlist in categories of fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

In the lead-up to announcing the winners at the 2018 Melbourne Writers Festival, we’re introducing you to each and every young writer on our list. First up, meet our poets!

Hanqing Li | VIC | We are Such Stuff

Why do you write poetry?

I write poetry mostly when other forms of writing – be it fiction or non-fiction, feels either too verbose or too structured for an idea. I love how when you’re writing poetry, all rules of writing can go out the window if you want them to. You can skip past worrying about the world building and word count. It gives you a freedom to directly express emotion, and a freedom to pin down ideas in the way you find best and most direct.

Who are your favourite writers? Or your favourite books?

My favourite author, overall, would have to be Richard Siken. His poems are raw, emotional, and so, so beautiful. It’s the type of writing you want to paint onto your bedroom wall or inscribe somewhere, the type of imagery you not only see, but also feel.

Other authors I love include Tennessee Williams, Maggie Stiefvater, Madeline Miller, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, and Sir Terry Pratchett. It varies from day to day.

Can you tell us a bit about your shortlisted John Marsden Prize submission?

I’d like to think that “We Are Such Stuff” is mainly about the need to grapple with truth, and the fear of inadequacy. It’s about trying to find a way to come to terms with a false reality you’ve constructed, and trying to find a way to talk about a delicate situation regarding sexuality, identity, and longing, but struggling to find the metaphor that allows for the conveyance of emotion without the responsibility of a deeply personal confession.

Why did you choose to write it?

I’ve always loved poetry, both as a type of art and as a way of exploring ideas and doubts. Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about how art can be both deeply personal and utterly evasive, often at the same time. This piece started as a way for me to explore that idea, as well as a way to put onto paper some of the thoughts that I’d often found myself preoccupied by.

Tanisha Dooley | VIC | In The Back Seat

Why do you write poetry?

I write down poetry in my journal because I am afraid I will forget certain times in my life and certain feelings, once I grow up and become an adult.

Who are your favourite writers? Or your favourite books?

My favourite writers currently include J.D. Salinger, Charlotte Brontë and Sylvia Plath. When I was a kid I loved reading Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl books also. My absolute favourite book (at the moment) would have to be The Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger.

Can you tell us a bit about your shortlisted John Marsden Prize submission?

My submission was a small, quick poem I wrote down in my journal, as I was in the back seat of my car driving home at night. To me, there is something very magical about driving at night time; watching the lights turn different colours, hearing the humming sounds of other cars beside you and seeing the shadows go past you.

Why did you choose to write it?

I choose to write this poem because I like writing about and romanticising seemingly mundane and everyday tasks, like driving home at night. I find it a lot easier to talk about these activities because they arouse a lot nostalgia for me.

Raya Defteros | VIC | You Are What You Eat

Why do you write poetry?

Because it is like music. There is a softness to it which I have always loved. I find it comes more easily to me than other forms of writing. It is beautiful, yes, but the nature of it –– the breaks in the stanzas, the flow of the words  ––  reminds me of my own thoughts. It is the truest thing I can offer. 

Who are your favourite writers? Or your favourite books?

I think Savannah Brown’s slam poetry is beautiful. I liked the Catcher in the Rye; it was very sad but has stayed with me. Steven Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a coming of age book that I love. Can I count Bob Dylan? I love those songs of his where he’s just telling big stories. My brother and sister and I would always sing along to Tombstone Blues and yell “the sun ain’t yellow, it’s chicken!” 

Can you tell us a bit about your shortlisted John Marsden Prize submission?

My piece is about my experiences with mental illnesses. I think the romanticisation of eating disorders in western society is very real, and it’s something I’ve explored in my poem, along with my own experiences and recovery. 

Why did you choose to write it?

I have wanted to write about my illnesses for a long time, but only recently was I in a stable enough position in my recovery to write this poem. Disordered eating isn’t really discussed when we talk about mental health; even if eating disorders are brought up in casual conversation, there’s always a kind of quiet reverence present. The misconceptions about EDs can prevent sufferers from receiving help until it’s too late, and EDs themselves can be very isolating. So, if I’ve helped one person feel less alone, then I’ve succeeded. 

Niamh Brazil | NSW | Camelot

Why do you write poetry?
At the risk of sounding ridiculously pretentious, I believe poetry is uniquely powerful in its ability to capture and articulate the nuances and paradoxes of humanity. Whether it’s personal identity, social justice, history or philosophy, poetry can express it in its purest form. I love it because it gives me the freedom to experiment with different forms and features to best express an idea. And since we spend so much time writing essays at school it’s nice to get a break from rigidly formulaic writing!

Who are your favourite writers? Or your favourite books?
I have an incredible amount of love for Alice Oseman at the moment. She writes stories that are beautifully human and effortlessly diverse in a way that has inspired my own writing. Margaret
Atwood is also one of my favourites, ‘The Penelopiad’ and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ in particular.

Can you tell us a bit about your shortlisted John Marsden Prize submission?
My poem is about Jackie Kennedy in the immediate aftermath of her JFK’s assassination. It depicts how she managed to shape the “Camelot” myth only a few short days after the traumatic event and how instrumental she was in defining her husband’s legacy.

Why did you choose to write it?
The idea actually came from a project I was doing in modern history. Before doing my research, I had a very uninformed opinion about her – that she was only concerned with style and fashion. However, she was a very intelligent and savvy woman who managed to wield a substantial amount of power through controlling the narrative of her family. The iconography of the Kennedy period of history are also striking and I tried to weave these into the poem.

Fadi Jan | NSW | Sensation of pain

Why do you write poetry?

I write because I can. I write because I enjoy it and its a medium to express what is on my mind––often poeticizing the things that often make no sense. I’d been introduced to poetry––or more like, become attached to it––over the past year. It’s more like a spiritual thing, something that is self-sufficient. I still have a long way to go, yet still hope to write better and improve day by day.

Who are your favourite writers? Or your favourite books?

While I don’t really read many novels, I do often find myself reading poetry from poets like Edgar Allan Poe to W.B. Yeats. My exposure to poetry and its art still is little, yet I hope that over the years I am able to gain an insight into more poets, forms, structures and techniques when writing.

Can you tell us a bit about your shortlisted John Marsden Prize submission?

I was quite surprised that it was shortlisted. The main idea of the poem is about taking the reader into a dark scene. The captivity of the self and the imagery of pain and suffering. Its less of a story and more about painting a picture––which I tried to do at that moment, and often what poetry is about.

Why did you choose to write it?

This poem I had written one evening; stuck within a sort of dark mindset for a period of time. It felt right to open up and start writing something and soon enough I ended up with the Sensation of Pain. A bunch of stanzas squashed together as an attempt to create word art. Trying to establish a mood through words is sometimes a difficult thing to do. But there is a challenge with everything, this is just a more creative challenge.