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Events         

2019 Peter Carey Short Story, the inaugural Moorabool Shire Libraries’ Best Local Entry Award and Moorabool Young Writers' Award

    

 

The Peter Carey Short Story Award is thrilled to announce our winner and runner-up for 2019. On a wonderful awards day on Saturday 1 June, judge Nic Low read from his report and delivered his verdict to a packed Bacchus Marsh library.

Huge congratulations to Alex Cothren for his story ‘Let’s Talk Trojan Bee’, winner of the 2019 PCSSA. Runner-up is Paige Clark, for her story ‘Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’. Alex and Paige receive $1000 and $500 respectively, and their stories will appear in the spring edition of Meanjin. Winner of the inaugural Best Local Entry Award is Ballan writer Bob Carey-Grieve for his story ‘Act III’. Bob receives $250 and an excerpt of ‘Act III’ will appear in The Moorabool News in the coming weeks.

Nic Low’s judge’s report is available to read here: 

 

Peter Carey Short Story Award Judge's Report

Nic Low

There's an old Ngai Tahu chant from the South Island of New Zealand called 'Na Te Ao' by Matiaha Tiramorehu. It starts with the famous lines “Na te ao / Ko te ao turoa / Tana ko te ao marama”. Passed down over generations, Matiaha's chant tells our creation story from the gods down through the ancestor-mountains and winds to the world of humans, all in a dozen lines. 

Short stories evolved out of oral traditions like these. Tales passed word-of-mouth over generations get whittled down until just the essentials remain. The brevity and precision of the classic written short story owes a lot to these oral roots.

Where I come from in New Zealand we have karakia, pūrakau and pakiwaitara, chants, histories and stories that spring from local landscapes, yet share narrative DNA from across the Pacific. Contemporary Māori authors capture something of the form in print.

Closer to home, Kulin Nation stories narrate local dreaming tracks—routes taken by creator spirits that are also trade routes, and vectors for the transfer of knowledge over tens of thousands of years. Aboriginal writers today also draw on these traditions in numerous ways.

Meanwhile, contemporary Western short stories have their roots in the rich traditions of myths, fables and fairytales.

In each of these traditions, the best written short stories still have the compression, the immediacy and the distilled wisdom of verbal tales.

But—times have changed.

Oral history meant people sitting together, talking to one another, generation after generation. Who does that any more? Nights spent telling our own stories are a thing of the past.

We're more likely to sit together but play with our phones. If we talk, it's via social media instead. Twitter, Facebook, viral news stories and syndicated opinion-pieces are the oral histories of our time.

Which begs a question: if the classic short story form evolved from oral storytelling, what new short story forms will evolve to reflect the social media landscape of today?

 

The answer is the the winner of the 2019 Peter Carey Short Story Award: Alex Cothren's 'Let's Talk Trojan Bee'.

'Let's Talk Trojan Bee' is a polyphonic piece built entirely from quotations spanning Twitter, Fox News, The New York Times, IPCC reports, as well as Breitbart and Infowars. On first read it's reminiscent of George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo. But where Saunders uses a cacophony of ghosts to explore the emotional life of Abraham Lincoln, Alex's cocophony is about, and built from, the deafening noise of our time: the internet.

Alex tells a tale of climate change and the impact of collapsing bee populations. But the frame quickly expands to encompass migrant workers, border control, far-right conspiracy theories, mass shootings and ultimately civil war. It's ingenious, timely, and politically and socially astute. It's also hilarious. The polarisation of opinion and the mainstreaming of conspiracy theory are two defining features of our time. 'Let's Talk Trojan Bee' makes black comedy from both.

Congratulations, Alex, on a wonderful piece of work.

 

Runner-up for the 2019 Peter Carey Short Story Award is 'Elisabeth Kubler-Ross', which is the name of the story, not the author; it's by Paige Clark.

In 'Elisabeth Kubler-Ross', a pregnant woman makes a deal with god: a god with a lower-case 'g', one who's lonely, and covetous, who takes a shine to the woman's horse, and her lover, their unborn child, even their ute.

In a reversal of Faust, it's God who craves more, and the bargain grows more outrageous until the woman begs god to take everything, even her own life, if he'll leave their unborn child alone. It's an exquisite piece of writing: ascerbic, poignant, and wickedly funny, too.

The story's depth only increases if you know that the Elizabeth Kubler-Ross of the title was the renowned psychiatrist who developed the five stages of grief model: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Kubler-Ross suffered two miscarriages herself.

'Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' is highly polished. Paige has written and then edited it down to the bone with an angular confidence that frequently made me suck in my breath. This compression gives the piece the air of a time-honed oral history, even of a myth.

Congratulations, Paige.

 

Congratulations, too, to all of the shortlisted writers.

In Claire Aman's 'If there are Zebra Finches' Alessandro and Dolores run outback motorcycle tours. They take two strangely birdlike scientists into the desert looking for rare birds. It's a lyrical story, full of insight and melancholy, and one that brings echoes of Charles Darwin into the modern age.

'Long Road Becoming' takes us for a run at dawn with a man fresh out of prison and finally clean of drugs. It's written in second-person: you're caring for your cancer-ridden Dad, living in his run-down house, trying to create yourself a new life, cell-by-cell. Mykaela Saunders' story is beautifully crafted, full of pitch-perfect colloqualisms, and offers a portrayal of an urban Indigenous life that doesn't skim over the darkness while remaining focussed on the light.

Laura Elvery's 'Place, Lost' starts from a delicious premise: the elderly members of a small town develop a collective consciousness, and escape their retirement home to live a carefree, telepathic life on an island off the coast. It's also an ambitious and deft story because it's written from the point of view of all of the retirees, using a collective 'we'. Stop trying to figure out who's who and accept that you're inside a hive-mind, and you find yourself immersed in the dream-like, out-of-sight, out-of-mind world of a whole community of retirees.

Sketch in Room 16 by Jocelyn Richardson is about motherhood, illness, and remembering and misremembering your own past. Two daughters visit their mother in hospital, who's tripping off her face on ketamine, and is by turns vulnerable and outrageous. It's an emotionally astute and highly engaging piece of writing, with a strange and moving ending where parent and child roles reverse.

 

Congratulations, again. I hope you'll all follow these writers, and support them every step of the way!

 

 

This year, 155 brave young writers from across Moorabool entered the second annual Moorabool Young Writers’ Awards. Judge Allyse Near was regaled with tales of adventures and exploration. From pigeons, snakes and bears, to zombies, princesses and reluctant heroes, the collective imagination of Moorabool’s young residents is something to behold. At the awards ceremony, Allyse read from her report and announced her winners from across the three categories. They are:

 

Junior

First: Matilda John, Mount Arapiles Adventure

Second: Tafheem Hazari, Tom and Elip: The Best Friends

Third: Ryan Simson, The Very Normal Boy

Commended: Ivy Tyley-Miller, Going Camping

Commended: Bryson McMillan, How the Axolotls Got Their Legs

 

Intermediate:

First: Alisha Rizvi, The Dragon’s Castle

Second: Jessica Hutchesson, A New Home

Third: Owen Simson, The day we went camping

Commended: Indiana Tyley-Miller, The Virus

Commended: Charlie Mckinnon, The Magical Basketball Shoes

 

Youth

First: Grace Fisher, War: A pigeon’s Perspective

Second: Jack O’Leary, Voice of the Wind

Third: Matthew Michalik, The Itch

Commended: Charlotte Caligari, Under the Bridge

 

A huge thank you to everyone who made the staging of the 2019 Peter Carey Short Story Award / Moorabool Young Writers’ Awards possible. A very special thank you to Natalie Grero, who after three years has stepped away from the awards. Nat was pivotal in the growth and success of the award, as both a founding member and organiser on behalf of Moorabool Shire Libraries, and the PCSSA Committee (Wayne Marshall and Jem Tyley-Miller) wish Nat all the very best in everything she does next.     

 

 

School Holiday Program

Stay tuned for our Winter School Holiday program activities

Week 1

Mon 1 July - Boomerang Bags - Darley Neighbouthood House

Tue 2 July - Movie Screening - Bacchus Marsh

Wed 3 July - Movie Screening - Ballan

Thu 4 July - Slime Workshop - Bacchus Marsh

Fri 5 July - Slime Workshop - Ballan

 

Week 2

Mon 8 July - NAIDOC Craft - Bacchus Marsh

Tue 9 July - NAIDOC Storytime - Bacchus Marsh

Wed 10 July - Boomerang Bags -  Ballan

Thu 11 July - Wind Chimes -  Bacchus Marsh

Fri 12 July - Wind Chimes - Ballan

 

BacchChat

A free monthly interactive forum, where experienced presenters facilitate enlightening conversations on social issues, philosophy, wellness and life matters with practical applications. Sessions are held the first Saturday of every month (except January) from 10.00am - 12.00noon at the Lerderderg Library.

May BacchChat - Saturday 6 July, 10am - 12noon- Our History, Our Story, Our Future - NAIDOC Week

 

Audio of May BacchChat- Itchy Feet

Audio of April BacchChat- Forever Young

Audio of March BacchChat- The Search for Other Worlds

Audio of February BacchChat- Human connections in a digital world

 

With thanks to Apple FM 

Photography Classes

 

Join Bacchus Marsh and District photography club's beginner photography class at the Bacchus Marsh Library. 

This event is booked out. Please phone to be placed on the waiting list. 

Bookings essential. Bring your own camera. 

Phone: 53667100 to book. 

 

Movie Events

Screenings operate at the Lerderderg Library on the last Friday of the month at 10.30am, on a wide variety of films from various genres.

Next screening is on Friday 28, June 10.30am with the film "Bohemian Rhapsody"

 

Author Talk

Author talks and book signings are held throughout the year at Ballan and Bacchus Marsh by local and popular authors.

Featured Authors

Book your free ticket

Saturday 29 June, 10am

Ballan Library

Join talented artist Heather as she shares her story of

how she developed "Mouse Sprouts" and brought the characters to life.

Library Programs

STEAM LAB

Moorabool Shire Libraries are introducing a new program for tweens and teens titles “STEAM Lab workshops”.

STEAM focuses on learning through Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics.

These activities will be held at both Ballan and Bacchus Marsh branches.

Term 2

Bacchus Marsh- Sphero Balls and Robotics- no bookings required

Sessions start Thursday 9th May for 6 consecutive weeks. 

 

Ballan- Lego stop motion and board games- no bookings required

Sessions will be held each Friday, 3.30-4.30pm during the school term. 

Get Crafty!

  

 

BookChats

Calling all booklovers to join in the conversation!  

A book chat is just that – a relaxed chat about the books you’re reading or have read. Share your reading experiences with like minded people over some light refreshments.

New participants are warmly welcomed.

Lerderderg Library: Second Wednesday of each month @10am

Event Details

1000 Books Before School

1000 Books Before School, a program which encourages parents and carers to read 1000 books with their children before they begin school, is now open for registration!

Reading to preschool-aged children has been shown to develop early literacy by building vocabulary and language skills essential for learning to read.

Given that the average picture book takes just five minutes to read, spend just 15 minutes reading three books with your child each day and you will read 1000 books in a year. Even if you only have five minutes a day, you can reach that milestone in three years.

Visit any Moorabool Library Service or email info@moorabool.vic.gov.au to join the program. You will then receive your first reading record pack for your child. 

Throughout your journey, your child will receive special rewards at 100, 250, 500, 750 and 1000 books. 

Participating families will also be invited to special milestone events to celebrate the adventure.

Watch a video about 1000 Books Before School program

Download your reading record sheets

       

Baby Bounce

Library Services and Resources

Library Policies

• General Library Policy
• Public Access Technology- Conditions of use policy
• Unattended Children in the Library Policy
• Fees and Charges
• Code of Conduct

Library Locations and Opening Hours

Lerderderg Library – Bacchus Marsh

Address: 215 Main Street, Bacchus Marsh

Phone: (03) 5366 7100

Mondays and Thursdays	8.30am - 8.00pm
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays	8.30am - 5.00pm
Saturday	9.00am - 2.00pm
Sunday and Public Holidays	Closed

Ballan Library